Deep neural network for detecting obstacle instances using radar sensors in autonomous machine applications

ABSTRACT

In various examples, a deep neural network(s) (e.g., a convolutional neural network) may be trained to detect moving and stationary obstacles from RADAR data of a three dimensional (3D) space, in both highway and urban scenarios. RADAR detections may be accumulated, ego-motion-compensated, orthographically projected, and fed into a neural network(s). The neural network(s) may include a common trunk with a feature extractor and several heads that predict different outputs such as a class confidence head that predicts a confidence map and an instance regression head that predicts object instance data for detected objects. The outputs may be decoded, filtered, and/or clustered to form bounding shapes identifying the location, size, and/or orientation of detected object instances. The detected object instances may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stack to enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No.62/938,852, filed on Nov. 21, 2019, which is hereby incorporated byreference in its entirety.

BACKGROUND

Designing a system to safely drive a vehicle autonomously withoutsupervision is tremendously difficult. An autonomous vehicle should atleast be capable of performing as a functional equivalent of anattentive driver—who draws upon a perception and action system that hasan incredible ability to identify and react to moving and staticobstacles in a complex environment—to avoid colliding with other objectsor structures along the path of the vehicle. Thus, the ability to detectinstances of moving or stationary actors (e.g., cars, pedestrians, etc.)is a critical component of autonomous driving perception systems. Thiscapability has become increasingly important as the operationalenvironment for the autonomous vehicle has begun to expand from highwayenvironments to semi-urban and urban settings characterized by complexscenes with many occlusions and complex shapes.

Conventional perception methods rely heavily on the use of cameras orLIDAR sensors to detect obstacles in a scene. However, theseconventional approaches have a number of drawbacks. For example,conventional detection techniques are unreliable in scenes with heavyocclusions. Furthermore, conventional sensing techniques are generallyunreliable in inclement weather conditions, and the underlying sensorsare often prohibitively expensive. Moreover, because the output signalfrom these conventional systems requires heavy post-processing in orderto extract accurate three-dimensional (3D) information, the run-time ofthese conventional systems is generally higher and requires additionalcomputational and processing demands, thereby reducing the efficiency ofthese conventional systems.

Some conventional techniques use RADAR sensors to detect moving,reflective objects. However, many conventional RADAR detectiontechniques struggle or entirely fail to disambiguate obstacles frombackground noise in a cluttered environment. Furthermore, while sometraditional RADAR detection techniques work well when detecting moving,RADAR-reflective objects, they often struggle or entirely fail todistinguish stationary objects from background noise. Similarly,traditional RADAR detection techniques have a limited accuracy inpredicting object classification, dimension, and orientation.

SUMMARY

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate to object detection forautonomous machines using deep neural networks (DNNs). Systems andmethods are disclosed that use object detection techniques to identifyor detect instances of moving or stationary obstacles (e.g., cars,trucks, pedestrians, cyclists, etc.) and other objects withinenvironments for use by autonomous vehicles, semi-autonomous vehicles,robots, and/or other object types.

In contrast to conventional systems, such as those described above, thesystem of the present disclosure may implement a deep learning solution(e.g., using a deep neural network (DNN), such as a convolutional neuralnetwork (CNN)) for autonomous vehicles to detect moving and stationaryobstacles and other objects from RADAR data. More specifically, a neuralnetwork(s) may be trained to detect moving and stationary obstacles fromRADAR data of a three dimensional (3D) space. RADAR detections may beaccumulated, ego-motion-compensated, orthographically projected, and fedinto a neural network(s). The neural network(s) may include a commontrunk with a feature extractor and several heads that predict differentoutputs such as a class confidence head that predicts a confidence mapof objects “being present” and an instance regression head that predictsobject instance data (e.g., location, dimensions, pose, orientation,etc.) for detected objects. The outputs may be decoded, filtered, and/orclustered to form bounding shapes identifying the location, size, and/ororientation of detected object instances. The detected object instancesmay be provided to an autonomous machine control stack to enable safeplanning and control of an autonomous machine.

In some embodiments, ground truth training data for the neuralnetwork(s) may be generated from LIDAR data. More specifically, a scenemay be observed with RADAR and LIDAR sensors to collect RADAR data andLIDAR data for a particular time slice. The RADAR data may be used forinput training data, and the LIDAR data associated with the same orclosest time slice as the RADAR data may be annotated with ground truthlabels identifying objects to be detected. The LIDAR labels may bepropagated to the RADAR data, and LIDAR labels containing less than somethreshold number of RADAR detections may be omitted. The (remaining)LIDAR labels may be used to generate ground truth data. As such, thetraining data may be used to train the DNN to detect moving andstationary obstacles and other objects from RADAR data.

Unlike conventional approaches, the present techniques may be used todistinguish between stationary obstacles—such as cars—and stationarybackground noise, which is particularly important when navigating in acluttered urban environment. Moreover, since embodiments of the presentdisclosure may rely on RADAR data in operation, object detections may beperformed in inclement weather and at night, in situations wherecamera-based and LIDAR-based detection techniques degrade and fail.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present systems and methods for detecting obstacle instances usingRADAR sensors in autonomous machine applications are described in detailbelow with reference to the attached drawing figures, wherein:

FIG. 1 is a data flow diagram illustrating an example process for anobject detection system, in accordance with some embodiments of thepresent disclosure;

FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram illustrating an example process forpre-processing sensor data for machine learning model(s) in an objectdetection system, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 3 is an illustration of example machine learning model(s), inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 4 is a data flow diagram illustrating an example post-processingprocess for generating object detections in an object detection system,in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 5A is an illustration of an example orthographic projection ofaccumulated RADAR detections and corresponding object detections, andFIG. 5B is an illustration of the object detections projected intocorresponding images from three cameras, in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing a method for object detection usingRADAR data, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing another method for object detectionusing RADAR data, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing another method for object detectionusing RADAR data, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 9A is an illustration of an example orthographic projection ofaccumulated RADAR detections and corresponding ground truth boundingboxes propagated from a corresponding LIDAR frame and filtered based ona minimum number of RADAR detections per bounding box, and FIG. 9B is anillustration of the corresponding LIDAR frame with the ground truthbounding boxes, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram showing a method for training a machinelearning model for object detection, in accordance with some embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram showing another method for training a machinelearning model for object detection, in accordance with some embodimentsof the present disclosure;

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram showing a method for propagating LIDAR labelsto RADAR data, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure;

FIG. 13A is an illustration of an example autonomous vehicle, inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13B is an example of camera locations and fields of view for theexample autonomous vehicle of FIG. 13A, in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13C is a block diagram of an example system architecture for theexample autonomous vehicle of FIG. 13A, in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure;

FIG. 13D is a system diagram for communication between cloud-basedserver(s) and the example autonomous vehicle of FIG. 13A, in accordancewith some embodiments of the present disclosure; and

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example computing device suitable foruse in implementing some embodiments of the present disclosure.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Systems and methods are disclosed relating to object detection forautonomous machines using deep neural networks (DNNs). Systems andmethods are disclosed that use object detection techniques to identifyor detect instances of moving or stationary obstacles (e.g., cars,trucks, pedestrians, cyclists, etc.) and other objects withinenvironments for use by autonomous vehicles, semi-autonomous vehicles,robots, and/or other object types. Although the present disclosure maybe described with respect to an example autonomous vehicle 1300(alternatively referred to herein as “vehicle 1300” or “ego-vehicle1300,” an example of which is described herein with respect to FIGS.13A-13D), this is not intended to be limiting. For example, the systemsand methods described herein may be used by non-autonomous vehicles,semi-autonomous vehicles (e.g., in one or more advanced driverassistance systems (ADAS)), robots, warehouse vehicles, off-roadvehicles, flying vessels, boats, and/or other vehicle types. Inaddition, although the present disclosure may be described with respectto autonomous driving, this is not intended to be limiting. For example,the systems and methods described herein may be used in robotics (e.g.,path planning for a robot), aerial systems (e.g., path planning for adrone or other aerial vehicle), boating systems (e.g., path planning fora boat or other water vessel), and/or other technology areas, such asfor localization, path planning, and/or other processes.

At a high level, a DNN (e.g., a convolutional neural network (CNN)) maybe trained to detect moving and stationary obstacles using RADAR data ofa three dimensional (3D) space, in both highway and urban scenarios. Toform the input into the DNN, raw RADAR detections of an environmentaround an ego-object or ego-actor—such as a moving vehicle—may bepre-processed into a format that the DNN understands. In particular,RADAR detections may be accumulated, transformed to a single coordinatesystem (e.g., centered around the ego-actor), ego-motion-compensated(e.g., to a latest known position of the ego-actor), and/ororthographically projected to form a projection image (e.g., an overheadimage) of a desired size (e.g., spatial dimension) and with a desiredground sampling distance. For each pixel on the projection image whereone or more detections land, a set of features may be calculated ordetermined from reflection characteristics of the RADAR detection(s)(e.g., bearing, azimuth, elevation, range, intensity, Doppler velocity,RADAR cross section (RCS), reflectivity, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR),etc.). When there are multiple detections landing on (e.g.,intersecting) a pixel, a particular feature may be calculated byaggregating a corresponding reflection characteristic for the multipleoverlapping detections (e.g., using standard deviation, average, etc.).Thus, any given pixel may have multiple associated features values,which may be stored in corresponding channels of a tensor. As such,RADAR detections may be pre-processed into a multi-channel RADAR datatensor of a desired size, where each pixel of the projection imagecontained therein may include an associated set of feature valuesgenerated from accumulated and/or ego-motion-compensated RADARdetections. This RADAR data tensor may serve as the input into the DNN.

The architecture of the DNN may enable features to be extracted from theRADAR data tensor, and may enable class segmentation and/or instanceregression to be executed on the extracted features. For example, theDNN may include a common trunk (or stream of layers) with several heads(or at least partially discrete streams of layers) for predictingdifferent outputs based on the input data. The common trunk may beimplemented using encoder and decoder components with skip connections,in embodiments (e.g., similar to a Feature Pyramid Network, U-Net,etc.). The output of the common trunk may be connected to a classconfidence head and/or an instance regression head. The class confidencehead may include a channel (e.g., classifier) for each class of objectto be detected (e.g., vehicles, cars, trucks, vulnerable road users,pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikes, etc.), such that the class confidencehead serves to predict classification data—such as a confidence map—inthe form of a multi-channel tensor. Each channel may be thought of as aheat map with confidence/probability values that each pixel belongs tothe class corresponding to the channel. The instance regression head mayinclude N channels (e.g., classifiers), where each channel regresses aparticular type of information about a detected object, such as wherethe object is located (e.g., dx/dy vector pointing to center of theobject), object height, object width, object orientation (e.g., rotationangle such as sine and/or cosine), and/or the like. Thus, the instanceregression head may serve to predict a multi-channel instance regressiontensor storing N types of object information. Each channel of theinstance regression tensor may include floating point numbers thatregress a particular type of object information such as a particularobject dimension. By way of nonlimiting example, each pixel of theinstance regression tensor may have values for <dx,dy,w,h,sin O,cos O,etc.>. As such, the DNN may predict a multi-channel class confidencetensor and/or a multi-channel instance regression tensor from a givenRADAR data tensor.

The predicted class confidence tensor and instance regression tensor maybe used to generate bounding boxes, closed polylines, or other boundingshapes identifying the locations, sizes, and/or orientations of detectedobject instances in the scene depicted in a projection image. Since theobject instance data may be noisy, bounding shapes may be generatedusing non-maximum suppression, density-based spatial clustering ofapplication with noise (DBSCAN), and/or another function. By way ofnon-limiting example, candidate bounding boxes (or other boundingshapes) may be formed for a given object class based on object instancedata (e.g., location, dimensions such as size, pose, and/or orientationdata) from the corresponding channels of the instance regression tensorand/or from the confidence map from a corresponding channel of the classconfidence tensor for that class. The result may be a set of candidatebounding boxes (or other bounding shapes) for each object class.

Various types of filtering may be performed to remove certaincandidates. For example, each candidate may be associated with acorresponding confidence/probability value associated with one or morecorresponding pixels from a corresponding channel of the classconfidence tensor for the class being evaluated (e.g., using theconfidence/probability value of a representative pixel such as a centerpixel, using an averaged or some other composite value computed over thecandidate region, etc.). Thus, candidate bounding shapes that have aconfidence/probability of being a member of the object class less thansome threshold (e.g., 50%) may be filtered out. The candidate with thehighest confidence/probability score for the class may be assigned aninstance ID, a metric such as intersection over union (IoU) may becalculated with respect to each of the other candidates in the class,and candidates having an IoU above some threshold may be filtered out toremove duplicates. The process may be repeated, assigning the candidatehaving the next highest confidence/probability score an instance ID,removing duplicates, and repeating until there are no more candidatesremaining. The process may be repeated for each of the other classes.Additionally and/or alternatively, clustering may be performed on thecandidate bounding shapes, for example, by clustering the centers of thecandidate bounding shapes and removing duplicate candidates from eachcluster.

As such, post-processing may be applied to a predicted class confidencetensor and instance regression tensor to generate bounding boxes, closedpolylines, or other bounding shapes identifying the locations, size,and/or orientations of the detected object instances in the scenedepicted in a corresponding projection image. Once the object instanceshave been determined, the 2D pixel coordinates defining the objectinstances may be converted to 3D world coordinates (e.g., byreprojecting detection object instances from the 2D orthographicprojection back to 3D world coordinates) for use by the autonomousvehicle in performing one or more operations (e.g., lane keeping, lanechanging, path planning, mapping, etc.).

To train the DNN, training data may be generated using thepre-processing technique described above. However, given how sparseRADAR data may be, it is often challenging to distinguish objects suchas vehicles in the RADAR data alone. As such, in some embodiments,ground truth data may be generated from LIDAR data or other sources of3D information such as stereo cameras, structure from motion depthestimation, ultrasound, and/or the like. More specifically, a scene maybe observed with RADAR and LIDAR sensors to collect a frame of RADARdata and LIDAR data for a particular time slice. The RADAR data may beused to generate an input RADAR data tensor, and the LIDAR dataassociated with the same or closest time slice as the RADAR data may beused to generate ground truth labels, which may be used to generateground truth class segmentation and/or instance regression tensors. Morespecifically, a LIDAR point cloud may be orthographically projected toform a LIDAR projection image (e.g., an overhead image) corresponding tothe RADAR projection image contained in the RADAR data tensor (e.g.,having the same size, perspective, and/or ground sampling distance). TheLIDAR projection image may be annotated (e.g., manually, automatically,etc.) with labels identifying the locations, sizes, orientations, and/orclasses of the instances of the relevant objects in the LIDAR projectionimage. The LIDAR labels may comprise bounding boxes, closed polylines,or other bounding shapes drawn, annotated, superimposed, and/orotherwise associated with the LIDAR projection image.

The LIDAR labels may be used to generate a corresponding classconfidence tensor and instance regression tensor that may serve asground truth data for the DNN. In some embodiments, the LIDAR labels maybe propagated to a RADAR projection image for a closest frame of RADARdata (e.g., associated with the same time slice), the number of RADARdetections each LIDAR label contains may be determined, and LIDAR labelscontaining less than some threshold number of RADAR detections may beomitted. The (remaining) LIDAR labels may be used to generate groundtruth data. For example, the location, size, orientation, and/or classof each of the (remaining) LIDAR labels may be used to generate aconfidence map matching the size and dimensionality of the classconfidence tensor. By way of non-limiting example, for a given class anda corresponding dimension of the class confidence tensor, pixel valuesfor pixels falling within each labeled bounding shape for that class maybe set to a value indicating a positive classification (e.g., 1).Additionally or alternatively, the location, size, orientation, and/orclass of each of the (remaining) LIDAR labels may be used to generateobject information matching the size and dimensionality of the instanceregression tensor. For example, for each pixel contained with the LIDARlabel, the LIDAR label may be used to compute corresponding location,size, and/or orientation information. Orientation information mayinclude, for example and without limitation, information related to:where the object is located (e.g., for an object center) relative toeach pixel, an object height, an object width, an object orientation(e.g., rotation angles relative to the orientation of the projectionimage), and/or the like. The computed object information may be storedin a corresponding channel of the instance regression tensor. Thus,LIDAR labels may be used to generate ground truth class segmentationand/or instance regression tensors.

As such, the training data may be used to train the DNN to detect movingand stationary obstacles and other objects from RADAR data, and theobject detections may be provided to an autonomous vehicle drive stackto enable safe planning and control of the autonomous vehicle. Unlikeconventional approaches, the present techniques may be used todistinguish between stationary obstacles—such as cars—and stationarybackground noise, which is particularly important when navigating in acluttered urban environment. Further, embodiments of the presentdisclosure may provide a simple and effective way to regress dimensionsand orientations of these obstacles, where conventional methods struggleor fail entirely. Moreover, since embodiments of the present disclosuremay rely on RADAR data in operation, object detections may be performedin inclement weather and at night, in situations where camera-based andLIDAR-based detection techniques degrade and fail.

Example Object Detection System

With reference to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a data flow diagram illustrating anexample process for an object detection system, in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure. It should be understood that thisand other arrangements described herein are set forth only as examples.Other arrangements and elements (e.g., machines, interfaces, functions,orders, groupings of functions, etc.) may be used in addition to orinstead of those shown, and some elements may be omitted altogether.Further, many of the elements described herein are functional entitiesthat may be implemented as discrete or distributed components or inconjunction with other components, and in any suitable combination andlocation. Various functions described herein as being performed byentities may be carried out by hardware, firmware, and/or software. Forinstance, various functions may be carried out by a processor executinginstructions stored in memory.

At a high level, the process 100 may include one or more machinelearning models 108 configured to detect objects such as instances ofobstacles from sensor data 102 such as RADAR detections generated fromRADAR sensors 101. The sensor data 102 may be pre-processed 104 intoinput data with a format that machine learning model(s) 108understands—such as a RADAR data tensor 106—and the input data may befed into machine learning model(s) 108 to detect objects 116 representedin the input data. In some embodiments, machine learning model(s) 108predicts a class confidence tensor 110 and an instance regression tensor112, which may be post-processed 114 into object detections 116comprising bounding boxes, closed polylines, or other bounding shapesidentifying the locations, sizes, and/or orientations of the detectedobjects. These object detections 116 may correspond to obstacles aroundan autonomous vehicle, and may be used by control component(s) of theautonomous vehicle (e.g., controller(s) 1336, ADAS system 1338, SOC(s)1304, software stack 122, and/or other components of the autonomousvehicle 1300 of FIGS. 13A-13D) to aid the autonomous vehicle inperforming one or more operations (e.g., obstacle avoidance, pathplanning, mapping, etc.) within an environment.

In embodiments where the sensor data 102 includes RADAR data, the RADARdata may be captured with respect to a three dimensional (3D) space. Forexample, one or more RADAR sensors 101 of an ego-object orego-actor—such as RADAR sensor(s) 1360 of the autonomous vehicle 1300 ofFIGS. 13A-13D—may be used to generate RADAR detections of objects in anenvironment around the vehicle. Generally, a RADAR system may include atransmitter that emits radio waves. The radio waves reflect off ofcertain objects and materials, and one of the RADAR sensor(s) 101 maydetect these reflections and reflection characteristics such as bearing,azimuth, elevation, range (e.g., time of beam flight), intensity,Doppler velocity, RADAR cross section (RCS), reflectivity, SNR, and/orthe like. Reflections and reflection characteristics may depend on theobjects in the environment, speeds, materials, sensor mounting positionand orientation, etc. Firmware associated with the RADAR sensor(s) 101may be used to control RADAR sensor(s) 101 to capture and/or processsensor data 102, such as reflection data from the sensor's field ofview. Generally, sensor data 102 may include raw sensor data, RADARpoint cloud data, and/or reflection data processed into some otherformat. For example, reflection data may be combined with position andorientation data (e.g., from GNSS and IMU sensors) to form a point cloudrepresenting detected reflections from the environment. Each detectionin the point cloud may include a three dimensional location of thedetection and metadata about the detection such as one or more of thereflection characteristics.

Sensor data 102 may be pre-processed 104 into a format that machinelearning model(s) 108 understands. For example, in embodiments wheresensor data 102 includes RADAR detections, the RADAR detections may beaccumulated, transformed to a single coordinate system (e.g., centeredaround the ego-actor/vehicle), ego-motion-compensated (e.g., to a latestknown position of the ego-actor/vehicle), and/or orthographicallyprojected to form a projection image (e.g., an overhead image) of adesired size (e.g., spatial dimension) and with a desired groundsampling distance. The projection image and/or other reflection data maybe stored and/or encoded into a suitable representation, such as a RADARdata tensor 106, which may serve as the input into machine learningmodel(s) 108.

FIG. 2 is a data flow diagram illustrating an example process forpre-processing 104 sensor data 102 for machine learning model(s) 108 inan object detection system, in accordance with some embodiments of thepresent disclosure. In this example, sensor data 102 may include RADARdetections, which may be accumulated 210 (which may include transformingto a single coordinate system), ego-motion-compensated 220, and/orencoded 230 into a suitable representation such as a projection image ofthe RADAR detections, with multiple channels storing differentreflection characteristics.

More specifically, sensor detections such as RADAR detections may beaccumulated 210 from multiple sensors, such as some or all thesurrounding RADAR sensor(s) 1360 from different locations of theautonomous vehicle 1300, and may be transformed to a single vehiclecoordinate system (e.g., centered around the vehicle). Additionally oralternatively, the sensor detections may be accumulated 210 over time inorder to increase the density of the accumulated sensor data. Sensordetections may be accumulated over any desired window of time (e.g., 0.5seconds (s), 1 s, 2 s, etc.). The size of the window may be selectedbased on the sensor and/or application (e.g., smaller windows may beselected for noisy applications such as highway scenarios). As such,each input into machine learning model(s) 108 may be generated fromaccumulated detections from each window of time from a rolling window(e.g., from a duration spanning from t-window size to present). Eachwindow to evaluate may be incremented by any suitable step size, whichmay but need not correspond to the window size. Thus, each successiveinput into machine learning model(s) 108 may be based on successivewindows, which may but need not be overlapping.

In some embodiments, ego-motion-compensation 220 may be applied to thesensor detections. For example, accumulated detections may beego-motion-compensated to the latest known vehicle position. Morespecifically, locations of older detections may be propagated to alatest known position of the moving vehicle, using the known motion ofthe vehicle to estimate where the older detections will be located(e.g., relative to the present location of the vehicle) at a desiredpoint in time (e.g., the current point in time). The result may be a setof accumulated, ego-motion compensated detections (e.g., RADARdetections) for a particular time slice.

In some embodiments, the (accumulated, ego-motion compensated) RADARdetections may be encoded 230 into a suitable representation such as aprojection image, which may include multiple channels storing differentfeatures such as reflection characteristics. More specifically,accumulated, ego-motion compensated detections may be orthographicallyprojected to form a projection image of a desired size (e.g., spatialdimension) and with a desired ground sampling distance. Any desired viewof the environment may be selected for the projection image, such as atop down view, a front view, a perspective view, and/or others. In someembodiments, multiple projection images with different views may begenerated, with each projection image being input into a separatechannel of machine learning model(s) 108. Since a projection image maybe evaluated as an input to the machine learning model(s) 108, there isgenerally a tradeoff between prediction accuracy and computationaldemand. As such, a desired spatial dimension and ground samplingdistance (e.g., meters per pixel) for the projection image may beselected as a design choice.

In some embodiments, a projection image may include multiple layers,with pixel values for the different layers storing different reflectioncharacteristics. In some embodiments, for each pixel on the projectionimage where one or more detections land, a set of features may becalculated, determined, or otherwise selected from the reflectioncharacteristics of the RADAR detection(s) (e.g., bearing, azimuth,elevation, range, intensity, Doppler velocity, RADAR cross section(RCS), reflectivity, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), etc.). When there aremultiple detections landing on a pixel, thereby forming a tower ofpoints, a particular feature for that pixel may be calculated byaggregating a corresponding reflection characteristic for the multipleoverlapping detections (e.g., using standard deviation, average, etc.).Thus, any given pixel may have multiple associated features values,which may be stored in corresponding channels of a RADAR data tensor106. As such, a RADAR data tensor 106 may serve as the input intomachine learning model(s) 108.

Turning now to FIG. 3, FIG. 3 is an illustration of an exampleimplementation of machine learning model(s) 108, in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure. At a high level, machine learningmodel(s) 108 may accept sensor data (e.g., RADAR data processed intoRADAR data tensor 106) as an input to detect objects such as instancesof obstacles represented in the sensor data. In a non-limiting example,machine learning model(s) 108 may take as input a projection image ofaccumulated, ego-motion compensated, and orthographically projectedRADAR detections, where any given pixel may store various reflectioncharacteristics of the RADAR detections in corresponding channels of aninput tensor (e.g., RADAR data tensor 106). In order to detect objectsfrom the input, machine learning model(s) 108 may predict classificationdata (e.g., class confidence tensor 110) and/or object instance datasuch as location, size, and/or orientation data for each class (e.g.,instance regression tensor 112). The classification data and objectinstance data may be post-processed to generate bounding boxes, closedpolylines, or other bounding shapes identifying the locations, sizes,and/or orientations of the detected object instances.

In some embodiments, machine learning model(s) 108 may be implementedusing a DNN, such as a convolutional neural network (CNN). Althoughcertain embodiments are described with machine learning model(s) 108being implemented using neural network(s), and specifically CNN(s), thisis not intended to be limiting. For example, and without limitation,machine learning model(s) 108 may include any type of machine learningmodel, such as a machine learning model(s) using linear regression,logistic regression, decision trees, support vector machines (SVM),Naïve Bayes, k-nearest neighbor (Knn), K means clustering, randomforest, dimensionality reduction algorithms, gradient boostingalgorithms, neural networks (e.g., auto-encoders, convolutional,recurrent, perceptrons, Long/Short Term Memory (LSTM), Hopfield,Boltzmann, deep belief, deconvolutional, generative adversarial, liquidstate machine, etc.), and/or other types of machine learning models.

Generally, machine learning model(s) 108 may include a common trunk (orstream of layers) with several heads (or at least partially discretestreams of layers) for predicting different outputs based on the inputdata. For example, machine learning model(s) 108 may include, withoutlimitation, a feature extractor including convolutional layers, poolinglayers, and/or other layer types, where the output of the featureextractor is provided as input to a first head for predictingclassification data and a second head for predicting location, size,and/or orientation of detected objects. The first head and the secondhead may receive parallel inputs, in some examples, and thus may producedifferent outputs from similar input data. In the example of FIG. 3,machine learning model(s) 108 is illustrated with an examplearchitecture that extracts features from RADAR data tensor 106 andexecutes class segmentation and/or instance regression on the extractedfeatures. More specifically, machine learning model(s) 108 of FIG. 3includes feature extractor trunk 310, class confidence head 320, andinstance regression head 330.

Feature extractor trunk 310 may be implemented using encoder and decodercomponents with skip connections (e.g., similar to a Feature PyramidNetwork, U-Net, etc.). For example, feature extractor trunk 310 mayaccept input data such as RADAR data tensor 106 and apply variousconvolutions, pooling, and/or other types of operations to extractfeatures into some latent space. In FIG. 3, feature extractor trunk 310is illustrated with an example implementation involving anencoder/decoder with an encoding (contracting) path down the left sideand an example decoding (expansive) path up the right. Along thecontracting path, each resolution may include any number of layers(e.g., convolutions, dilated convolutions, inception blocks, etc.) and adownampling operation (e.g., max pooling). Along the expansive path,each resolution may include any number of layers (e.g., deconvolutions,upsampling followed by convolution(s), and/or other types ofoperations). In the expansive path, each resolution of a feature map maybe upsampled and concatenated (e.g., in the depth dimension) withfeature maps of the same resolution from the contracting path. In thisexample, corresponding resolutions of the contracting and expansivepaths may be connected with skip connections (e.g., skip connection312), which may be used to add or concatenate feature maps fromcorresponding resolutions (e.g., forming concatenated feature map 314).As such, feature extractor trunk 310 may extract features into somelatent space tensor, which may be input into class confidence head 320and instance regression head 330.

Class confidence head 320 may include any number of layers 320A, 320B,320C (e.g., convolutions, pooling, classifiers such as softmax, and/orother types of operations, etc.) that predict classification data fromthe output of feature extractor trunk 310. For example, class confidencehead 320 may include a channel (e.g., a stream of layers plus aclassifier) for each class of object to be detected (e.g., vehicles,cars, trucks, vulnerable road users, pedestrians, cyclists, motorbikes,etc.), such that class confidence head 320 serves to predictclassification data—such as a confidence map—in the form of amulti-channel tensor (e.g., class confidence tensor 110). Each channelmay be thought of as a heat map with confidence/probability values thateach pixel belongs to the class corresponding to the channel.

Instance regression head 330 may include any number of layers 330A,330B, 330C (e.g., convolutions, pooling, classifiers such as softmax,and/or other types of operations, etc.) that predict object instancedata (such as location, size, and/or orientation of detected objects)from the output of feature extractor trunk 310. Instance regression head330 may include N channels (e.g., streams of layers plus a classifier),where each channel regresses a particular type of information about adetected object instance of the class, such as where the object islocated (e.g., dx/dy vector pointing to center of the object), objectheight, object width, object orientation (e.g., rotation angle such assine and/or cosine), and/or the like. By way of non-limiting example,instance regression head 330 may include separate dimensions identifyingthe x-dimension of the center of a detected object, the y-dimension ofthe center of a detected object, the width of a detected object, theheight of a detected object, the sine of the orientation of a detectedobjected (e.g., a rotation angle in 2D image space), the cosine of theorientation of a detected object, and/or other types of information.These types of object instance data are meant merely as an example, andother types of object information may be regressed within the scope ofthe present disclosure. Thus, the instance regression head 330 may serveto predict a multi-channel instance regression tensor (e.g., instanceregression tensor 112) storing N types of object information. Eachchannel of instance regression tensor 112 may include floating-pointnumbers that regress a particular type of object information such as aparticular object dimension.

As such, machine learning model(s) 108 may predict multi-channelclassification data (e.g., class confidence tensor 110) and/ormulti-channel object instance data (e.g., instance regression tensor112) from a particular input (e.g., RADAR data tensor 106). Somepossible training techniques are described in more detail below. Inoperation, the outputs of machine learning model(s) 108 may bepost-processed (e.g., decoded) to generate bounding boxes, closedpolylines, or other bounding shapes identifying the locations, sizes,and/or orientations of the detected object instances, as explained inmore detail below. Additionally or alternatively to machine learningmodel(s) 108 using a common trunk with separate segmentation heads,separate DNN featurizers may be configured to evaluate projection imagesfrom different views of the environment. In one example, multipleprojection images may be generated with different views, each projectionimage may be fed into separate side-by-size DNN featurizers, and thelatent space tensors of the DNN featurizers may be combined and decodedinto object detections (e.g., bounding boxes, closed polylines, or otherbounding shapes). In another example, sequential DNN featurizers may bechained. In this example, a first projection image may be generated witha first view of the environment (e.g., a perspective view), the firstprojection image may be fed into a first DNN featurizer (e.g., thatpredicts classification data), the output of the first DNN featurizermay be transformed to a second view of the environment (e.g., a top downview), which may be fed into a second DNN featurizer (e.g., thatpredicts object instance data). These architectures are meant simply asexamples, and other architectures (whether single-view or multi-viewscenarios with separate DNN featurizers) are contemplated within thescope of the present disclosure.

As explained above, the outputs of machine learning model(s) 108 may bepost-processed (e.g., decoded) to generate bounding boxes, closedpolylines, or other bounding shapes identifying the locations, sizes,and/or orientations of detected object instances. For example, when theinput into machine learning model(s) 108 includes a projection image(e.g., of accumulated, ego-motion compensated, and orthographicallyprojected RADAR detections), the bounding boxes, closed polylines, orother bounding shapes may be identified with respect to the projectionimage (e.g., in the image space of the projection image). In someembodiments, since the object instance data may be noisy and/or mayproduce multiple candidates, bounding shapes may be generated usingnon-maximum suppression, density-based spatial clustering of applicationwith noise (DBSCAN), and/or another function.

FIG. 4 is a data flow diagram illustrating an example post-processingprocess 114 for generating object detections 116 in an object detectionsystem, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.In this example, the post-processing process 114 includes an instancedecoder 140 and filtering and/or clustering 420. Generally, the instancedecoder 140 may identify candidate bounding boxes (or other boundingshapes) (e.g., for each object class) based on object instance data(e.g., location, size, and/or orientation data) from the correspondingchannels of an instance regression tensor 112 and/or the confidence mapfrom a corresponding channel of a class confidence tensor 110 for thatclass. More specifically, a predicted confidence map and predictedobject instance data may specify information about detected objectinstances, such as where the object is located, object height, objectwidth, object orientation, and/or the like. This information may be usedto identify candidate object detections (e.g., candidates having aunique center point, object height, object width, object orientation,and/or the like). The result may be a set of candidate bounding boxes(or other bounding shapes) for each object class.

Various types of filtering and/or clustering 420 may be applied toremove duplication and/or noise from the candidate bounding boxes (orother bounding shapes) for each object class. For example, in someembodiments, duplicates may be removed using non-maximum suppression.Non-maximum suppression may be used where two or more candidate boundingboxes have associated confidence values that indicate the candidatebounding boxes may correspond to the same object instance. In suchexamples, the confidence value that is the highest for the objectinstance may be used to determine which candidate bounding box to usefor that object instance, and non-maximum suppression may be used toremove, or suppress, the other candidates.

For example, each candidate bounding box (or other bounding shape) maybe associated with a corresponding confidence/probability valueassociated with one or more corresponding pixels from a correspondingchannel of the class confidence tensor 110 for the class being evaluated(e.g., using the confidence/probability value of a representative pixelsuch as a center pixel, using an averaged or some other composite valuecomputed over the candidate region, etc.). Thus, candidate boundingshapes that have a confidence/probability of being a member of theobject class less than some threshold (e.g., 50%) may be filtered out.Additionally or alternatively, a candidate bounding box (or other shape)with the highest confidence/probability score for a particular class maybe assigned an instance ID, a metric such as intersection over union(IoU) may be calculated with respect to each of the other candidates inthe class, and candidates having an IoU above some threshold may befiltered out to remove duplicates. The process may be repeated,assigning the candidate having the next highest confidence/probabilityscore an instance ID, removing duplicates, and repeating until there areno more candidates remaining. The process may be repeated for each ofthe other classes to remove duplicate candidates.

In some embodiments, a clustering approach such as density-based spatialclustering of applications with noise (DBSCAN) may be used to removeduplicate candidate bounding shapes. For example, candidate boundingshapes may be clustered (e.g., the centers of the candidate boundingshapes may be clustered), candidates in each cluster may be determinedto correspond to the same object instance, and duplicate candidates fromeach cluster may be removed.

To summarize, machine learning model(s) 108 may accept sensor data suchas a projection image (e.g., of accumulated, ego-motion compensated, andorthographically projected RADAR detections) and predict classificationdata and/or object instance data, which may be post-processed togenerate bounding boxes, closed polylines, or other bounding shapesidentifying the locations, sizes, and/or orientations of detected objectinstances in the projection image. FIG. 5A is an illustration of anexample orthographic projection of accumulated RADAR detections andcorresponding object detections (i.e., the white bounding boxes, in thisexample) in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.For visualization purposes, FIG. 5B is an illustration of the objectdetections projected into corresponding images from three cameras.

Once the locations, size, and/or orientations of the object instanceshave been determined, 2D pixel coordinates defining the object instancesmay be converted to 3D world coordinates for use by the autonomousvehicle in performing one or more operations (e.g., obstacle avoidance,lane keeping, lane changing, path planning, mapping, etc.). Morespecifically and returning to FIG. 1, object detections 116 (e.g.,bounding boxes, closed polylines, or other bounding shapes) may be usedby control component(s) of the autonomous vehicle 1300 depicted in FIGS.13A-13D, such as an autonomous driving software stack 122 executing onone or more components of the vehicle 1300 (e.g., the SoC(s) 1304, theCPU(s) 1318, the GPU(s) 1320, etc.). For example, the vehicle 1300 mayuse this information (e.g., instances of obstacles) to navigate, plan,or otherwise perform one or more operations (e.g. obstacle avoidance,lane keeping, lane changing, merging, splitting, etc.) within theenvironment.

In some embodiments, the object detections 116 may be used by one ormore layers of the autonomous driving software stack 122 (alternativelyreferred to herein as “drive stack 122”). The drive stack 122 mayinclude a sensor manager (not shown), perception component(s) (e.g.,corresponding to a perception layer of the drive stack 122), a worldmodel manager 126, planning component(s) 128 (e.g., corresponding to aplanning layer of the drive stack 122), control component(s) 130 (e.g.,corresponding to a control layer of the drive stack 122), obstacleavoidance component(s) 132 (e.g., corresponding to an obstacle orcollision avoidance layer of the drive stack 122), actuationcomponent(s) 134 (e.g., corresponding to an actuation layer of the drivestack 122), and/or other components corresponding to additional and/oralternative layers of the drive stack 122. The process 100 may, in someexamples, be executed by the perception component(s), which may feed upthe layers of the drive stack 122 to the world model manager, asdescribed in more detail herein.

The sensor manager may manage and/or abstract the sensor data 102 fromthe sensors of the vehicle 1300. For example, and with reference to FIG.13C, the sensor data 102 may be generated (e.g., perpetually, atintervals, based on certain conditions) by RADAR sensor(s) 1360. Thesensor manager may receive the sensor data 102 from the sensors indifferent formats (e.g., sensors of the same type may output sensor datain different formats), and may be configured to convert the differentformats to a uniform format (e.g., for each sensor of the same type). Asa result, other components, features, and/or functionality of theautonomous vehicle 1300 may use the uniform format, thereby simplifyingprocessing of the sensor data 102. In some examples, the sensor managermay use a uniform format to apply control back to the sensors of thevehicle 1300, such as to set frame rates or to perform gain control. Thesensor manager may also update sensor packets or communicationscorresponding to the sensor data with timestamps to help informprocessing of the sensor data by various components, features, andfunctionality of an autonomous vehicle control system.

A world model manager 126 may be used to generate, update, and/or definea world model. The world model manager 126 may use information generatedby and received from the perception component(s) of the drive stack 122(e.g., the locations of detected obstacles). The perception component(s)may include an obstacle perceiver, a path perceiver, a wait perceiver, amap perceiver, and/or other perception component(s). For example, theworld model may be defined, at least in part, based on affordances forobstacles, paths, and wait conditions that can be perceived in real-timeor near real-time by the obstacle perceiver, the path perceiver, thewait perceiver, and/or the map perceiver. The world model manager 126may continually update the world model based on newly generated and/orreceived inputs (e.g., data) from the obstacle perceiver, the pathperceiver, the wait perceiver, the map perceiver, and/or othercomponents of the autonomous vehicle control system.

The world model may be used to help inform planning component(s) 128,control component(s) 130, obstacle avoidance component(s) 132, and/oractuation component(s) 134 of the drive stack 122. The obstacleperceiver may perform obstacle perception that may be based on where thevehicle 1300 is allowed to drive or is capable of driving (e.g., basedon the location of the drivable paths defined by avoiding detectedobstacles), and how fast the vehicle 1300 can drive without collidingwith an obstacle (e.g., an object, such as a structure, entity, vehicle,etc.) that is sensed by the sensors of the vehicle 1300 and/or machinelearning model(s) 108.

The path perceiver may perform path perception, such as by perceivingnominal paths that are available in a particular situation. In someexamples, the path perceiver may further take into account lane changesfor path perception. A lane graph may represent the path or pathsavailable to the vehicle 1300, and may be as simple as a single path ona highway on-ramp. In some examples, the lane graph may include paths toa desired lane and/or may indicate available changes down the highway(or other road type), or may include nearby lanes, lane changes, forks,turns, cloverleaf interchanges, merges, and/or other information.

The wait perceiver may be responsible to determining constraints on thevehicle 1300 as a result of rules, conventions, and/or practicalconsiderations. For example, the rules, conventions, and/or practicalconsiderations may be in relation to traffic lights, multi-way stops,yields, merges, toll booths, gates, police or other emergency personnel,road workers, stopped buses or other vehicles, one-way bridgearbitrations, ferry entrances, etc. Thus, the wait perceiver may beleveraged to identify potential obstacles and implement one or morecontrols (e.g., slowing down, coming to a stop, etc.) that may not havebeen possible relying solely on the obstacle perceiver.

The map perceiver may include a mechanism by which behaviors arediscerned, and in some examples, to determine specific examples of whatconventions are applied at a particular locale. For example, the mapperceiver may determine, from data representing prior drives or trips,that at a certain intersection there are no U-turns between certainhours, that an electronic sign showing directionality of lanes changesdepending on the time of day, that two traffic lights in close proximity(e.g., barely offset from one another) are associated with differentroads, that in Rhode Island, the first car waiting to make a left turnat traffic light breaks the law by turning before oncoming traffic whenthe light turns green, and/or other information. The map perceiver mayinform the vehicle 1300 of static or stationary infrastructure objectsand obstacles. The map perceiver may also generate information for thewait perceiver and/or the path perceiver, for example, such as todetermine which light at an intersection has to be green for the vehicle1300 to take a particular path.

In some examples, information from the map perceiver may be sent,transmitted, and/or provided to server(s) (e.g., to a map manager ofserver(s) 1378 of FIG. 13D), and information from the server(s) may besent, transmitted, and/or provided to the map perceiver and/or alocalization manager of the vehicle 1300. The map manager may include acloud mapping application that is remotely located from the vehicle 1300and accessible by the vehicle 1300 over one or more network(s). Forexample, the map perceiver and/or the localization manager of thevehicle 1300 may communicate with the map manager and/or one or moreother components or features of the server(s) to inform the mapperceiver and/or the localization manager of past and present drives ortrips of the vehicle 1300, as well as past and present drives or tripsof other vehicles. The map manager may provide mapping outputs (e.g.,map data) that may be localized by the localization manager based on aparticular location of the vehicle 1300, and the localized mappingoutputs may be used by the world model manager 126 to generate and/orupdate the world model.

The planning component(s) 128 may include a route planner, a laneplanner, a behavior planner, and a behavior selector, among othercomponents, features, and/or functionality. The route planner may usethe information from the map perceiver, the map manager, and/or thelocalization manger, among other information, to generate a planned paththat may consist of GNSS waypoints (e.g., GPS waypoints), 3D worldcoordinates (e.g., Cartesian, polar, etc.) that indicate coordinatesrelative to an origin point on the vehicle 1300, etc. The waypoints maybe representative of a specific distance into the future for the vehicle1300, such as a number of city blocks, a number of kilometers, a numberof feet, a number of inches, a number of miles, etc., that may be usedas a target for the lane planner.

The lane planner may use the lane graph (e.g., the lane graph from thepath perceiver), object poses within the lane graph (e.g., according tothe localization manager), and/or a target point and direction at thedistance into the future from the route planner as inputs. The targetpoint and direction may be mapped to the best matching drivable pointand direction in the lane graph (e.g., based on GNSS and/or compassdirection). A graph search algorithm may then be executed on the lanegraph from a current edge in the lane graph to find the shortest path tothe target point.

The behavior planner may determine the feasibility of basic behaviors ofthe vehicle 1300, such as staying in the lane or changing lanes left orright, so that the feasible behaviors may be matched up with the mostdesired behaviors output from the lane planner. For example, if thedesired behavior is determined to not be safe and/or available, adefault behavior may be selected instead (e.g., default behavior may beto stay in lane when desired behavior or changing lanes is not safe).

The control component(s) 130 may follow a trajectory or path (lateraland longitudinal) that has been received from the behavior selector(e.g., based on object detections 116) of the planning component(s) 128as closely as possible and within the capabilities of the vehicle 1300.The control component(s) 130 may use tight feedback to handle unplannedevents or behaviors that are not modeled and/or anything that causesdiscrepancies from the ideal (e.g., unexpected delay). In some examples,the control component(s) 130 may use a forward prediction model thattakes control as an input variable, and produces predictions that may becompared with the desired state (e.g., compared with the desired lateraland longitudinal path requested by the planning component(s) 128). Thecontrol(s) that minimize discrepancy may be determined.

Although the planning component(s) 128 and the control component(s) 130are illustrated separately, this is not intended to be limiting. Forexample, in some embodiments, the delineation between the planningcomponent(s) 128 and the control component(s) 130 may not be preciselydefined. As such, at least some of the components, features, and/orfunctionality attributed to the planning component(s) 128 may beassociated with the control component(s) 130, and vice versa. This mayalso hold true for any of the separately illustrated components of thedrive stack 122.

The obstacle avoidance component(s) 132 may aid the autonomous vehicle1300 in avoiding collisions with objects (e.g., moving and stationaryobjects). The obstacle avoidance component(s) 132 may include acomputational mechanism at a “primal level” of obstacle avoidance, andmay act as a “survival brain” or “reptile brain” for the vehicle 1300.In some examples, the obstacle avoidance component(s) 132 may be usedindependently of components, features, and/or functionality of thevehicle 1300 that is required to obey traffic rules and drivecourteously. In such examples, the obstacle avoidance component(s) mayignore traffic laws, rules of the road, and courteous driving norms inorder to ensure that collisions do not occur between the vehicle 1300and any objects. As such, the obstacle avoidance layer may be a separatelayer from the rules of the road layer, and the obstacle avoidance layermay ensure that the vehicle 1300 is only performing safe actions from anobstacle avoidance standpoint. The rules of the road layer, on the otherhand, may ensure that vehicle obeys traffic laws and conventions, andobserves lawful and conventional right of way (as described herein).

In some examples, the drivable paths and/or object detections 116 may beused by the obstacle avoidance component(s) 132 in determining controlsor actions to take. For example, the drivable paths may provide anindication to the obstacle avoidance component(s) 132 of where thevehicle 1300 may maneuver without striking any objects, structures,and/or the like, or at least where no static structures may exist.

In non-limiting embodiments, the obstacle avoidance component(s) 132 maybe implemented as a separate, discrete feature of the vehicle 1300. Forexample, the obstacle avoidance component(s) 132 may operate separately(e.g., in parallel with, prior to, and/or after) the planning layer, thecontrol layer, the actuation layer, and/or other layers of the drivestack 122.

As such, the vehicle 1300 may use this information (e.g., as the edges,or rails of the paths) to navigate, plan, or otherwise perform one ormore operations (e.g. lane keeping, lane changing, merging, splitting,etc.) within the environment.

Now referring to FIGS. 6-8, each block of methods 600, 700, and 800,described herein, comprises a computing process that may be performedusing any combination of hardware, firmware, and/or software. Forinstance, various functions may be carried out by a processor executinginstructions stored in memory. The methods may also be embodied ascomputer-usable instructions stored on computer storage media. Themethods may be provided by a standalone application, a service or hostedservice (standalone or in combination with another hosted service), or aplug-in to another product, to name a few. In addition, methods 600,700, and 800 are described, by way of example, with respect to theobject detection system described herein. However, these methods mayadditionally or alternatively be executed by any one system, or anycombination of systems, including, but not limited to, those describedherein.

FIG. 6 is a flow diagram showing a method 600 for object detection usingRADAR data, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The method 600, at block B602, includes accumulating, over aperiod of time, RADAR data representative of sensor detections of one ormore RADAR sensors of an ego-actor, such as a moving vehicle. Forexample, RADAR detections may be accumulated from multiple sensors, suchas some or all the surrounding RADAR sensor(s) 1360 from differentlocations of the autonomous vehicle 1300, and may be transformed to asingle vehicle coordinate system (e.g., centered around the vehicle).Additionally or alternatively, the sensor detections may be accumulatedover time in order to increase the density of the accumulated sensordata.

The method 600, at block B604, includes generating motion-compensatedsensor detections. For example, accumulated detections may beego-motion-compensated to a latest known position of the ego-actor(e.g., moving vehicle). Locations of older detections may be propagatedto a latest known position of the moving vehicle, using the known motionof the vehicle to estimate where the older detections will be located(e.g., relative to the present location of the vehicle) at the currentpoint in time.

The method 600, at block B606, includes projecting themotion-compensated sensor detections into two-dimensional (2D)image-space to generate a projection image. For example, themotion-compensated sensor detections may be orthographically projectedto form a projection image (e.g., from a top-down view) of a desiredsize (e.g., spatial dimension) and with a desired ground samplingdistance.

The method 600, at block B608, includes applying data representative ofthe projection image to a neural network. For example, the projectionimage and corresponding reflection characteristics may be stored inmultiple layers of a tensor, with pixel values for the different layersstoring different reflection characteristics. In some embodiments, foreach pixel on the projection image where one or more detections land, aset of features may be calculated, determined, or selected from thereflection characteristics of the RADAR detection(s) (e.g., bearing,azimuth, elevation, range, intensity, Doppler velocity, RADAR crosssection (RCS), reflectivity, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), etc.).

The method 600, at block B610, includes computing an outputrepresentative of one or more detected objects using the neural networkand based at least in part on the data representative of the projectionimage. For example, the neural network may accept the projection imageand corresponding reflection characteristics encoded into a suitablerepresentation such as a tensor, and predict an output such asclassification data (e.g., a class confidence tensor) and/or objectinstance data about each detected object instance (e.g., an instanceregression tensor).

The method 600, at block B612, includes generating, based at least inpart on the output of the neural network, at least one bounding shapecorresponding to each object of the one or more detected objects. Forexample, the output may include classification data and/or objectinstance data, which may be used to compute multiple candidate boundingshapes, candidate bounding shapes may be filtered and/or clustered toremove duplicates.

FIG. 7 is a flow diagram showing a method 700 for object detection usingRADAR data, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The method 700, at block B702, includes accessing amulti-channel RADAR data tensor encoding accumulatedego-motion-compensated sensor detections and corresponding reflectioncharacteristics corresponding to an environment of an ego-actor. Forexample, the multi-channel RADAR data tensor may include a projectionimage of the accumulated ego-motion-compensated sensor detections withpixel values for different channels of the multi-channel RADAR datatensor storing different reflection characteristics.

The method 700, at block B704, includes applying data representative ofthe multi-channel RADAR data tensor to a neural network to cause theneural network to compute an output indicative of one or more detectedobjects in the environment. For example, the neural network may acceptthe multi-channel RADAR data tensor, a corresponding projection image,and/or corresponding reflection characteristics, and predict an outputsuch as classification data (e.g., a class confidence tensor) and/orobject instance data about each detected object instance (e.g., aninstance regression tensor).

The method 700, at block B706, includes generating, from the output ofthe neural network, one or more bounding shapes corresponding to the oneor more detected objects in the environment. For example, the output mayinclude classification data and/or object instance data, which may beused to compute multiple candidate bounding shapes, and the candidatebounding shapes may be filtered and/or clustered to remove duplicates.

FIG. 8 is a flow diagram showing a method 800 for object detection usingRADAR data, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The method 800, at block B802, includes accumulating, over aperiod of time, sensor data representative of sensor detections andcorresponding reflection characteristics corresponding to an environmentof an ego-actor, such as a moving vehicle. For example, RADAR detectionsmay be accumulated from multiple sensors, such as some or all thesurrounding RADAR sensor(s) 1360 from different locations of theautonomous vehicle 1300, and may be transformed to a single vehiclecoordinate system (e.g., centered around the vehicle). Additionally oralternatively, the sensor detections may be accumulated over time inorder to increase the density of the accumulated sensor data.

The method 800, at block B804, includes converting the sensor detectionsto a latest known position of the ego-actor to generatemotion-compensated sensor detections. For example, the sensor detectionsmay be ego-motion-compensated to a latest known position of theego-actor (e.g., moving vehicle). Locations of older detections may bepropagated to a latest known position of the moving vehicle, using theknown motion of the vehicle to estimate where the older detections willbe located (e.g., relative to the present location of the vehicle) atthe current point in time.

The method 800, at block B806, includes projecting themotion-compensated sensor detections into a projection image. Forexample, the motion-compensated sensor detections may beorthographically projected to form a projection image (e.g., from atop-down view) of a desired size (e.g., spatial dimension) and with adesired ground sampling distance.

The method 800, at block B808, includes for each pixel of the projectionimage, computing a set of features based at least in part on thereflection characteristics corresponding to a subset of themotion-compensated sensor detections associated with the pixel. Forexample, in some embodiments, for each pixel on the projection imagewhere one or more detections land, a set of features may be calculated,determined, or selected from the reflection characteristics of the RADARdetection(s) (e.g., bearing, azimuth, elevation, range, intensity,Doppler velocity, RADAR cross section (RCS), reflectivity,signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), etc.). When there are multiple detectionslanding on a pixel, thereby forming a tower of points, a particularfeature may be calculated by aggregating a corresponding reflectioncharacteristic for the multiple overlapping detections (e.g., usingstandard deviation, average, etc.).

The method 800, at block B810, includes generating an output thatencodes the projection image and the set of features for a neuralnetwork configured to detect objects in the environment. For example,the projection image and corresponding reflection characteristics may bestored in multiple layers of a tensor, with pixel values for thedifferent layers storing different reflection characteristics.

Training Machine Learning Model(s) of an Object Detection System

In order to train a machine learning model for an object detectionsystem (e.g., machine learning model(s) 108 of FIG. 1), training datamay be generated from sensor data using the pre-processing techniquedescribed above (e.g., pre-processing 104 of FIG. 1). However, given howsparse RADAR data may be, it is often challenging to distinguish objectssuch as vehicles in the RADAR data alone. As such, in some embodiments,ground truth data may be generated from LIDAR data generated from one ormore LIDAR sensor(s).

For example, a scene may be observed with RADAR and LIDAR sensors (e.g.,RADAR sensor(s) 1360 and LIDAR sensor(s) 1364 of autonomous vehicle 1300of FIGS. 13A-13D) to collect a frame of RADAR data and LIDAR data for aparticular time slice. The RADAR data may be used to generate an inputRADAR data tensor using the pre-processing technique described above(e.g., pre-processing 104 of FIG. 1). The LIDAR data associated with thesame or closest time slice as the RADAR data may be used to generateground truth labels, which may be used to generate ground truthclassification data and/or object instance data corresponding to theoutput of machine learning model(s) 108 (e.g., class confidence tensor110 and instance regression tensor 112 of FIG. 1).

More specifically, a LIDAR point cloud may be orthographically projectedto form a LIDAR projection image (e.g., an overhead image) correspondingto the RADAR projection image contained in the RADAR data tensor (e.g.,having the same dimensionality, perspective, and/or ground samplingdistance). The LIDAR projection image may be annotated (e.g., manually,automatically, etc.) with labels identifying the locations, sizes,orientations, and/or classes of the instances of the relevant objects inthe LIDAR projection image. The LIDAR labels may be generated within adrawing program (e.g., an annotation program), a computer aided design(CAD) program, a labeling program, another type of suitable program,and/or may be hand drawn, in some examples. In any example, the LIDARlabels may be synthetically produced (e.g., generated from computermodels or renderings), real produced (e.g., designed and produced fromreal-world data), machine-automated (e.g., using feature analysis andlearning to extract features from data and then generate labels), humanannotated (e.g., labeler, or annotation expert, defines the location ofthe labels), and/or a combination thereof (e.g., human identifiesvertices of polylines, machine generates polygons using polygonrasterizer). Generally, the LIDAR labels may comprise bounding boxes,closed polylines, or other bounding shapes drawn, annotated,superimposed, and/or otherwise associated with the LIDAR projectionimage. FIG. 9B is an illustration of an example LIDAR frame with whiteground truth bounding boxes.

Generally, the LIDAR labels identified from the LIDAR frame may be usedto generate a corresponding class confidence tensor and instanceregression tensor that may serve as ground truth data for the DNN.However, certain LIDAR labels may be selected for use in generatingground truth data based on corresponding RADAR data. More specifically,the LIDAR labels identified from the LIDAR frame may be propagated to acorresponding RADAR projection image for a closest frame of RADAR data(e.g., associated with the same time slice). In some embodiments, theLIDAR projection image and the RADAR projection image may correspondwith one another (e.g., have the same dimensionality, perspective,and/or ground sampling distance). This can facilitate a directcomparison between LIDAR and RADAR detections, and an evaluation ofwhich LIDAR labels correspond to observed RADAR detections. For example,the number of RADAR detections each propagated LIDAR label contains maybe determined, and LIDAR labels containing less than some thresholdnumber of RADAR detections may be omitted from use in generating groundtruth data. As such, the remaining LIDAR labels may be used as groundtruth labels to generate ground truth data for machine learning model(s)108.

FIG. 9A is an illustration of an example orthographic projection ofaccumulated RADAR detections and ground truth bounding boxes (shown inwhite) propagated from a corresponding LIDAR frame, and FIG. 9B is anillustration of the corresponding LIDAR frame with ground truth boundingboxes, in accordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure.Note that the LIDAR detections in FIG. 9B are more dense than the RADARdetections in FIG. 9A. As such, the denser LIDAR detections may beeasier to label than the sparser RADAR detections. As illustrated inFIGS. 9A and 9B, the LIDAR labels (shown in white) from the LIDAR frame(more specifically, a LIDAR projection image of the LIDAR frame)illustrated in FIG. 9B have been propagated to the corresponding RADARframe (more specifically, a RADAR projection image of the RADAR frame)illustrated in FIG. 9A. In FIG. 9A, propagated LIDAR labels containingless than some threshold number of RADAR detections have been omitted.The remaining LIDAR labels may be used as ground truth labels togenerate ground truth data for machine learning model(s) 108.

To generate ground truth data from the (remaining) LIDAR labels, thelocation, size, orientation, and/or class of each of the (remaining)LIDAR labels may be used to generate a confidence map matching the sizeand dimensionality of class confidence tensor 110. By way ofnon-limiting example, for a given class and a corresponding dimension ofclass confidence tensor 110, pixel values for pixels falling within eachlabeled bounding shape for that class may be set to a value indicating apositive classification (e.g., 1). The process may be repeated andstored in corresponding channels of a ground truth class confidencetensor. Additionally or alternatively, the location, size, orientation,and/or class of each of the (remaining) LIDAR labels may be used togenerate object instance data matching the size and dimensionality ofinstance regression tensor 112. For example, for each pixel containedwith the LIDAR label, the LIDAR label may be used to computecorresponding location, size, and/or orientation information (e.g.,where the object is located—such as the object center—relative to eachpixel, object height, object width, object orientation (e.g., rotationangles relative to the orientation of the projection image), and/or thelike). The computed object instance data may be stored in acorresponding channel of a ground truth instance regression tensor.Thus, LIDAR labels may be used to generate ground truth classsegmentation and/or instance regression tensors, which may be used withcorresponding RADAR data tensors as part of a training dataset to trainmachine learning model(s) 108.

More specifically, the training set of RADAR data tensors may be inputinto machine learning model(s) 108, and the ground truth classsegmentation and/or instance regression tensors may be used to trainmachine learning model(s) 108. For example, one or more loss functions(e.g., a single loss function, a loss function for each output type,etc.) may be used to compare the accuracy of the output(s) of machinelearning model(s) 108 to ground truth, and the parameters of the machinelearning model(s) 108 may be updated (e.g., using backward passes,backpropagation, forward passed, etc.) until the accuracy reaches anoptimal or acceptable level. In some embodiments in which machinelearning model(s) 108 includes multiple heads, the multiple heads may beco-trained together with a common trunk, or may be trained separately.In embodiments involving multi-view scenarios with separate DNNfeaturizers, the DNN featurizers may be co-trained together orseparately. These and other variations are contemplated within thepresent disclosure.

Now referring to FIGS. 10-12, each block of methods 1000, 1100, and1200, described herein, comprises a computing process that may beperformed using any combination of hardware, firmware, and/or software.For instance, various functions may be carried out by a processorexecuting instructions stored in memory. The methods may also beembodied as computer-usable instructions stored on computer storagemedia. The methods may be provided by a standalone application, aservice or hosted service (standalone or in combination with anotherhosted service), or a plug-in to another product, to name a few. Inaddition, methods 900, 1000, and 1100 are described, by way of example,with respect to the training process for an object detection systemdescribed above. However, these methods may additionally oralternatively be executed by any one system, or any combination ofsystems, including, but not limited to, those described herein.

FIG. 10 is a flow diagram showing a method 1000 for training a machinelearning model for object detection, in accordance with some embodimentsof the present disclosure. The method 1000, at block B1002, includesreceiving RADAR data and LIDAR data collected from a three-dimensional(3D) environment. For example, a scene may be observed with RADAR andLIDAR sensors (e.g., RADAR sensor(s) 1360 and LIDAR sensor(s) 1364 ofautonomous vehicle 1300 of FIGS. 13A-13D) to collect RADAR data andLIDAR data.

The method 1000, at block B1004, includes orthographically projecting afirst instance of the LIDAR data associated with a time slice togenerate a LIDAR projection image representative of LIDAR detectionswithin the 3D environment.

The method 1000, at block B1006, includes receiving LIDAR labelsidentifying locations of objects represented by the LIDAR detections inthe LIDAR projection image. For example, the LIDAR labels may begenerated within a drawing program (e.g., an annotation program), acomputer aided design (CAD) program, a labeling program, another type ofsuitable program, and/or may be hand drawn.

The method 1000, at block B1008, includes orthographically projecting asecond instance of the RADAR data associated with the time slice togenerate a RADAR projection image representative of RADAR detectionswithin the 3D environment. The LIDAR projection image and the RADARprojection image may correspond with one another (e.g., have the samedimensionality, perspective, and/or ground sampling distance).

The method 1000, at block B1010, includes propagating the LIDAR labelsto the RADAR projection image to generate propagated LIDAR labels.

The method 1000, at block B1012, includes determining a number of theRADAR detections corresponding to each propagated LIDAR label of thepropagated LIDAR labels.

The method 1000, at block B1014, includes removing a set of thepropagated LIDAR labels that contain less than a threshold number ofRADAR detections, leaving a remaining set of LIDAR labels.

The method 1000, at block B1016, includes training a neural network todetect objects from the RADAR projection image using ground truth datagenerated based at least in part on the remaining set of LIDAR labels.For example, ground truth data matching the size and dimensionality ofthe output(s) of the neural network (e.g., machine learning model(s)108) may be generated using the location, size, orientation, and/orclass of each LIDAR label from the remaining set of LIDAR labels, andthe neural network may be trained using the ground truth data.

FIG. 11 is a flow diagram showing a method 1100 for training a machinelearning model for object detection, in accordance with some embodimentsof the present disclosure. The method 1100, at block B1102, includesreceiving RADAR data and LIDAR data collected from a three-dimensional(3D) environment. For example, a scene may be observed with RADAR andLIDAR sensors (e.g., RADAR sensor(s) 1360 and LIDAR sensor(s) 1364 ofautonomous vehicle 1300 of FIGS. 13A-13D) to collect RADAR data andLIDAR data.

The method 1100, at block B1104, includes, for each frame of the LIDARdata, performing steps indicated in blocks B1104-B1110. For example, themethod 1100 at block B1104 includes, for each frame of the LIDAR data,generating, from the frame of LIDAR data, a LIDAR projection imagerepresentative of LIDAR detections from the 3D environment. For example,LIDAR detections (e.g., a LIDAR point cloud) from the frame of LIDARdata may be orthographically projected to form a LIDAR projection image(e.g., an overhead image).

The method 1100, at block B1106, includes, for each frame of the LIDARdata, receiving LIDAR labels identifying locations of objectsrepresented by the LIDAR detections in the LIDAR projection image. Forexample, the LIDAR labels may be generated within a drawing program(e.g., an annotation program), a computer aided design (CAD) program, alabeling program, another type of suitable program, and/or may be handdrawn.

The method 1100, at block B1108, includes, for each frame of the LIDARdata, generating, from a corresponding frame of the RADAR dataassociated with the frame of LIDAR data, a RADAR projection imagerepresentative of RADAR detections from the 3D environment. For example,RADAR detections (e.g., a RADAR point cloud) from the correspondingframe of RADAR data may be orthographically projected to form the RADARprojection image (e.g., an overhead image).

The method 1100, at block B1110, includes, for each frame of the LIDARdata, training a neural network to detect objects from the RADARprojection image using ground truth data generated based at least inpart on the LIDAR labels. For example, ground truth data matching thesize and dimensionality of the output(s) of the neural network (e.g.,machine learning model(s) 108) may be generated using the location,size, orientation, and/or class of the LIDAR labels, and the neuralnetwork may be trained using the ground truth data.

FIG. 12 is a flow diagram showing a method 1200 for propagating LIDARlabels to RADAR data, in accordance with some embodiments of the presentdisclosure. The method 1200, at block B1202, includes receiving LIDARlabels of LIDAR detections in one or more instances of LIDAR datacollected from an environment over a period of time using a LIDARsensor. For example, a scene may be observed with LIDAR sensors (e.g.,LIDAR sensor(s) 1364 of autonomous vehicle 1300 of FIGS. 13A-13D) tocollect LIDAR data. The LIDAR labels may be generated within a drawingprogram (e.g., an annotation program), a computer aided design (CAD)program, a labeling program, another type of suitable program, and/ormay be hand drawn.

The method 1200, at block B1204, includes, for each of the one or moreinstances of LIDAR data, performing steps indicated in blocksB1204-B1206. For example, the method 1200 at block B1204 includes, foreach of the one or more instances of LIDAR data, identifying a closestinstance of RADAR data to the instance of LIDAR data, the closestinstance of RADAR data associated with an accumulated,ego-motion-compensated, orthographic image of a portion of the RADARdata collected from the environment over the period of time using aRADAR sensor. For example, a scene may be observed with both RADAR andLIDAR sensors (e.g., RADAR sensor(s) 1360 and LIDAR sensor(s) 1364 ofautonomous vehicle 1300 of FIGS. 13A-13D) to collect RADAR data andLIDAR data, and the closest instance of RADAR data to the instance ofLIDAR data may be identified based on the RADAR data and the LIDAR databeing associated with the same time slice.

The method 1200, at block B1206, includes, for each of the one or moreinstances of LIDAR data, propagating a set of the LIDAR labels for theLIDAR detections in the instance of LIDAR data to a corresponding set ofRADAR detections in the closest instance of RADAR data. A determinationmay be made how many of the RADAR detections are contained within eachof the propagated LIDAR labels, and propagated LIDAR labels containingless than some threshold number of RADAR detections (e.g., 2, 5, etc.)may be omitted. The remaining LIDAR labels may be used as ground truthlabels to generate ground truth data for a machine learning model (e.g.,machine learning model(s) 108).

Example Autonomous Vehicle

FIG. 13A is an illustration of an example autonomous vehicle 1300, inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. Theautonomous vehicle 1300 (alternatively referred to herein as the“vehicle 1300”) may include, without limitation, a passenger vehicle,such as a car, a truck, a bus, a first responder vehicle, a shuttle, anelectric or motorized bicycle, a motorcycle, a fire truck, a policevehicle, an ambulance, a boat, a construction vehicle, an underwatercraft, a drone, and/or another type of vehicle (e.g., that is unmannedand/or that accommodates one or more passengers). Autonomous vehiclesare generally described in terms of automation levels, defined by theNational Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), a division ofthe US Department of Transportation, and the Society of AutomotiveEngineers (SAE) “Taxonomy and Definitions for Terms Related to DrivingAutomation Systems for On-Road Motor Vehicles” (Standard No.J3016-201806, published on Jun. 15, 2018, Standard No. J3016-201609,published on Sep. 30, 2016, and previous and future versions of thisstandard). The vehicle 1300 may be capable of functionality inaccordance with one or more of Level 3-Level 5 of the autonomous drivinglevels. For example, the vehicle 1300 may be capable of conditionalautomation (Level 3), high automation (Level 4), and/or full automation(Level 5), depending on the embodiment.

The vehicle 1300 may include components such as a chassis, a vehiclebody, wheels (e.g., 2, 4, 6, 8, 18, etc.), tires, axles, and othercomponents of a vehicle. The vehicle 1300 may include a propulsionsystem 1350, such as an internal combustion engine, hybrid electricpower plant, an all-electric engine, and/or another propulsion systemtype. The propulsion system 1350 may be connected to a drive train ofthe vehicle 1300, which may include a transmission, to enable thepropulsion of the vehicle 1300. The propulsion system 1350 may becontrolled in response to receiving signals from thethrottle/accelerator 1352.

A steering system 1354, which may include a steering wheel, may be usedto steer the vehicle 1300 (e.g., along a desired path or route) when thepropulsion system 1350 is operating (e.g., when the vehicle is inmotion). The steering system 1354 may receive signals from a steeringactuator 1356. The steering wheel may be optional for full automation(Level 5) functionality.

The brake sensor system 1346 may be used to operate the vehicle brakesin response to receiving signals from the brake actuators 1348 and/orbrake sensors.

Controller(s) 1336, which may include one or more system on chips (SoCs)1304 (FIG. 13C) and/or GPU(s), may provide signals (e.g., representativeof commands) to one or more components and/or systems of the vehicle1300. For example, the controller(s) may send signals to operate thevehicle brakes via one or more brake actuators 1348, to operate thesteering system 1354 via one or more steering actuators 1356, to operatethe propulsion system 1350 via one or more throttle/accelerators 1352.The controller(s) 1336 may include one or more onboard (e.g.,integrated) computing devices (e.g., supercomputers) that process sensorsignals, and output operation commands (e.g., signals representingcommands) to enable autonomous driving and/or to assist a human driverin driving the vehicle 1300. The controller(s) 1336 may include a firstcontroller 1336 for autonomous driving functions, a second controller1336 for functional safety functions, a third controller 1336 forartificial intelligence functionality (e.g., computer vision), a fourthcontroller 1336 for infotainment functionality, a fifth controller 1336for redundancy in emergency conditions, and/or other controllers. Insome examples, a single controller 1336 may handle two or more of theabove functionalities, two or more controllers 1336 may handle a singlefunctionality, and/or any combination thereof.

The controller(s) 1336 may provide the signals for controlling one ormore components and/or systems of the vehicle 1300 in response to sensordata received from one or more sensors (e.g., sensor inputs). The sensordata may be received from, for example and without limitation, globalnavigation satellite systems sensor(s) 1358 (e.g., Global PositioningSystem sensor(s)), RADAR sensor(s) 1360, ultrasonic sensor(s) 1362,LIDAR sensor(s) 1364, inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor(s) 1366(e.g., accelerometer(s), gyroscope(s), magnetic compass(es),magnetometer(s), etc.), microphone(s) 1396, stereo camera(s) 1368,wide-view camera(s) 1370 (e.g., fisheye cameras), infrared camera(s)1372, surround camera(s) 1374 (e.g., 360 degree cameras), long-rangeand/or mid-range camera(s) 1398, speed sensor(s) 1344 (e.g., formeasuring the speed of the vehicle 1300), vibration sensor(s) 1342,steering sensor(s) 1340, brake sensor(s) (e.g., as part of the brakesensor system 1346), and/or other sensor types.

One or more of the controller(s) 1336 may receive inputs (e.g.,represented by input data) from an instrument cluster 1332 of thevehicle 1300 and provide outputs (e.g., represented by output data,display data, etc.) via a human-machine interface (HMI) display 1334, anaudible annunciator, a loudspeaker, and/or via other components of thevehicle 1300. The outputs may include information such as vehiclevelocity, speed, time, map data (e.g., the HD map 1322 of FIG. 13C),location data (e.g., the vehicle's 1300 location, such as on a map),direction, location of other vehicles (e.g., an occupancy grid),information about objects and status of objects as perceived by thecontroller(s) 1336, etc. For example, the HMI display 1334 may displayinformation about the presence of one or more objects (e.g., a streetsign, caution sign, traffic light changing, etc.), and/or informationabout driving maneuvers the vehicle has made, is making, or will make(e.g., changing lanes now, taking exit 34B in two miles, etc.).

The vehicle 1300 further includes a network interface 1324 which may useone or more wireless antenna(s) 1326 and/or modem(s) to communicate overone or more networks. For example, the network interface 1324 may becapable of communication over LTE, WCDMA, UMTS, GSM, CDMA2000, etc. Thewireless antenna(s) 1326 may also enable communication between objectsin the environment (e.g., vehicles, mobile devices, etc.), using localarea network(s), such as Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE, Z-Wave, ZigBee, etc.,and/or low power wide-area network(s) (LPWANs), such as LoRaWAN, SigFox,etc.

FIG. 13B is an example of camera locations and fields of view for theexample autonomous vehicle 1300 of FIG. 13A, in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure. The cameras and respective fieldsof view are one example embodiment and are not intended to be limiting.For example, additional and/or alternative cameras may be includedand/or the cameras may be located at different locations on the vehicle1300.

The camera types for the cameras may include, but are not limited to,digital cameras that may be adapted for use with the components and/orsystems of the vehicle 1300. The camera(s) may operate at automotivesafety integrity level (ASIL) B and/or at another ASIL. The camera typesmay be capable of any image capture rate, such as 60 frames per second(fps), 1320 fps, 240 fps, etc., depending on the embodiment. The camerasmay be capable of using rolling shutters, global shutters, another typeof shutter, or a combination thereof. In some examples, the color filterarray may include a red clear clear clear (RCCC) color filter array, ared clear clear blue (RCCB) color filter array, a red blue green clear(RBGC) color filter array, a Foveon X3 color filter array, a Bayersensors (RGGB) color filter array, a monochrome sensor color filterarray, and/or another type of color filter array. In some embodiments,clear pixel cameras, such as cameras with an RCCC, an RCCB, and/or anRBGC color filter array, may be used in an effort to increase lightsensitivity.

In some examples, one or more of the camera(s) may be used to performadvanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) functions (e.g., as part of aredundant or fail-safe design). For example, a Multi-Function MonoCamera may be installed to provide functions including lane departurewarning, traffic sign assist and intelligent headlamp control. One ormore of the camera(s) (e.g., all of the cameras) may record and provideimage data (e.g., video) simultaneously.

One or more of the cameras may be mounted in a mounting assembly, suchas a custom designed (3-D printed) assembly, in order to cut out straylight and reflections from within the car (e.g., reflections from thedashboard reflected in the windshield mirrors) which may interfere withthe camera's image data capture abilities. With reference to wing-mirrormounting assemblies, the wing-mirror assemblies may be custom 3-Dprinted so that the camera mounting plate matches the shape of thewing-mirror. In some examples, the camera(s) may be integrated into thewing-mirror. For side-view cameras, the camera(s) may also be integratedwithin the four pillars at each corner of the cabin.

Cameras with a field of view that include portions of the environment infront of the vehicle 1300 (e.g., front-facing cameras) may be used forsurround view, to help identify forward facing paths and obstacles, aswell aid in, with the help of one or more controllers 1336 and/orcontrol SoCs, providing information critical to generating an occupancygrid and/or determining the preferred vehicle paths. Front-facingcameras may be used to perform many of the same ADAS functions as LIDAR,including emergency braking, pedestrian detection, and collisionavoidance. Front-facing cameras may also be used for ADAS functions andsystems including Lane Departure Warnings (“LDW”), Autonomous CruiseControl (“ACC”), and/or other functions such as traffic signrecognition.

A variety of cameras may be used in a front-facing configuration,including, for example, a monocular camera platform that includes a CMOS(complementary metal oxide semiconductor) color imager. Another examplemay be a wide-view camera(s) 1370 that may be used to perceive objectscoming into view from the periphery (e.g., pedestrians, crossing trafficor bicycles). Although only one wide-view camera is illustrated in FIG.13B, there may any number of wide-view cameras 1370 on the vehicle 1300.In addition, long-range camera(s) 1398 (e.g., a long-view stereo camerapair) may be used for depth-based object detection, especially forobjects for which a neural network has not yet been trained. Thelong-range camera(s) 1398 may also be used for object detection andclassification, as well as basic object tracking.

One or more stereo cameras 1368 may also be included in a front-facingconfiguration. The stereo camera(s) 1368 may include an integratedcontrol unit comprising a scalable processing unit, which may provide aprogrammable logic (FPGA) and a multi-core micro-processor with anintegrated CAN or Ethernet interface on a single chip. Such a unit maybe used to generate a 3-D map of the vehicle's environment, including adistance estimate for all the points in the image. An alternative stereocamera(s) 1368 may include a compact stereo vision sensor(s) that mayinclude two camera lenses (one each on the left and right) and an imageprocessing chip that may measure the distance from the vehicle to thetarget object and use the generated information (e.g., metadata) toactivate the autonomous emergency braking and lane departure warningfunctions. Other types of stereo camera(s) 1368 may be used in additionto, or alternatively from, those described herein.

Cameras with a field of view that include portions of the environment tothe side of the vehicle 1300 (e.g., side-view cameras) may be used forsurround view, providing information used to create and update theoccupancy grid, as well as to generate side impact collision warnings.For example, surround camera(s) 1374 (e.g., four surround cameras 1374as illustrated in FIG. 13B) may be positioned to on the vehicle 1300.The surround camera(s) 1374 may include wide-view camera(s) 1370,fisheye camera(s), 360 degree camera(s), and/or the like. Four example,four fisheye cameras may be positioned on the vehicle's front, rear, andsides. In an alternative arrangement, the vehicle may use three surroundcamera(s) 1374 (e.g., left, right, and rear), and may leverage one ormore other camera(s) (e.g., a forward-facing camera) as a fourthsurround view camera.

Cameras with a field of view that include portions of the environment tothe rear of the vehicle 1300 (e.g., rear-view cameras) may be used forpark assistance, surround view, rear collision warnings, and creatingand updating the occupancy grid. A wide variety of cameras may be usedincluding, but not limited to, cameras that are also suitable as afront-facing camera(s) (e.g., long-range and/or mid-range camera(s)1398, stereo camera(s) 1368), infrared camera(s) 1372, etc.), asdescribed herein.

FIG. 13C is a block diagram of an example system architecture for theexample autonomous vehicle 1300 of FIG. 13A, in accordance with someembodiments of the present disclosure. It should be understood that thisand other arrangements described herein are set forth only as examples.Other arrangements and elements (e.g., machines, interfaces, functions,orders, groupings of functions, etc.) may be used in addition to orinstead of those shown, and some elements may be omitted altogether.Further, many of the elements described herein are functional entitiesthat may be implemented as discrete or distributed components or inconjunction with other components, and in any suitable combination andlocation. Various functions described herein as being performed byentities may be carried out by hardware, firmware, and/or software. Forinstance, various functions may be carried out by a processor executinginstructions stored in memory.

Each of the components, features, and systems of the vehicle 1300 inFIG. 13C are illustrated as being connected via bus 1302. The bus 1302may include a Controller Area Network (CAN) data interface(alternatively referred to herein as a “CAN bus”). A CAN may be anetwork inside the vehicle 1300 used to aid in control of variousfeatures and functionality of the vehicle 1300, such as actuation ofbrakes, acceleration, braking, steering, windshield wipers, etc. A CANbus may be configured to have dozens or even hundreds of nodes, eachwith its own unique identifier (e.g., a CAN ID). The CAN bus may be readto find steering wheel angle, ground speed, engine revolutions perminute (RPMs), button positions, and/or other vehicle status indicators.The CAN bus may be ASIL B compliant.

Although the bus 1302 is described herein as being a CAN bus, this isnot intended to be limiting. For example, in addition to, oralternatively from, the CAN bus, FlexRay and/or Ethernet may be used.Additionally, although a single line is used to represent the bus 1302,this is not intended to be limiting. For example, there may be anynumber of busses 1302, which may include one or more CAN busses, one ormore FlexRay busses, one or more Ethernet busses, and/or one or moreother types of busses using a different protocol. In some examples, twoor more busses 1302 may be used to perform different functions, and/ormay be used for redundancy. For example, a first bus 1302 may be usedfor collision avoidance functionality and a second bus 1302 may be usedfor actuation control. In any example, each bus 1302 may communicatewith any of the components of the vehicle 1300, and two or more busses1302 may communicate with the same components. In some examples, eachSoC 1304, each controller 1336, and/or each computer within the vehiclemay have access to the same input data (e.g., inputs from sensors of thevehicle 1300), and may be connected to a common bus, such the CAN bus.

The vehicle 1300 may include one or more controller(s) 1336, such asthose described herein with respect to FIG. 13A. The controller(s) 1336may be used for a variety of functions. The controller(s) 1336 may becoupled to any of the various other components and systems of thevehicle 1300, and may be used for control of the vehicle 1300,artificial intelligence of the vehicle 1300, infotainment for thevehicle 1300, and/or the like.

The vehicle 1300 may include a system(s) on a chip (SoC) 1304. The SoC1304 may include CPU(s) 1306, GPU(s) 1308, processor(s) 1310, cache(s)1312, accelerator(s) 1314, data store(s) 1316, and/or other componentsand features not illustrated. The SoC(s) 1304 may be used to control thevehicle 1300 in a variety of platforms and systems. For example, theSoC(s) 1304 may be combined in a system (e.g., the system of the vehicle1300) with an HD map 1322 which may obtain map refreshes and/or updatesvia a network interface 1324 from one or more servers (e.g., server(s)1378 of FIG. 13D).

The CPU(s) 1306 may include a CPU cluster or CPU complex (alternativelyreferred to herein as a “CCPLEX”). The CPU(s) 1306 may include multiplecores and/or L2 caches. For example, in some embodiments, the CPU(s)1306 may include eight cores in a coherent multi-processorconfiguration. In some embodiments, the CPU(s) 1306 may include fourdual-core clusters where each cluster has a dedicated L2 cache (e.g., a2 MB L2 cache). The CPU(s) 1306 (e.g., the CCPLEX) may be configured tosupport simultaneous cluster operation enabling any combination of theclusters of the CPU(s) 1306 to be active at any given time.

The CPU(s) 1306 may implement power management capabilities that includeone or more of the following features: individual hardware blocks may beclock-gated automatically when idle to save dynamic power; each coreclock may be gated when the core is not actively executing instructionsdue to execution of WFI/WFE instructions; each core may be independentlypower-gated; each core cluster may be independently clock-gated when allcores are clock-gated or power-gated; and/or each core cluster may beindependently power-gated when all cores are power-gated. The CPU(s)1306 may further implement an enhanced algorithm for managing powerstates, where allowed power states and expected wakeup times arespecified, and the hardware/microcode determines the best power state toenter for the core, cluster, and CCPLEX. The processing cores maysupport simplified power state entry sequences in software with the workoffloaded to microcode.

The GPU(s) 1308 may include an integrated GPU (alternatively referred toherein as an “iGPU”). The GPU(s) 1308 may be programmable and may beefficient for parallel workloads. The GPU(s) 1308, in some examples, mayuse an enhanced tensor instruction set. The GPU(s) 1308 may include oneor more streaming microprocessors, where each streaming microprocessormay include an L1 cache (e.g., an L1 cache with at least 96 KB storagecapacity), and two or more of the streaming microprocessors may share anL2 cache (e.g., an L2 cache with a 512 KB storage capacity). In someembodiments, the GPU(s) 1308 may include at least eight streamingmicroprocessors. The GPU(s) 1308 may use compute application programminginterface(s) (API(s)). In addition, the GPU(s) 1308 may use one or moreparallel computing platforms and/or programming models (e.g., NVIDIA'sCUDA).

The GPU(s) 1308 may be power-optimized for best performance inautomotive and embedded use cases. For example, the GPU(s) 1308 may befabricated on a Fin field-effect transistor (FinFET). However, this isnot intended to be limiting and the GPU(s) 1308 may be fabricated usingother semiconductor manufacturing processes. Each streamingmicroprocessor may incorporate a number of mixed-precision processingcores partitioned into multiple blocks. For example, and withoutlimitation, 64 PF32 cores and 32 PF64 cores may be partitioned into fourprocessing blocks. In such an example, each processing block may beallocated 16 FP32 cores, 8 FP64 cores, 16 INT32 cores, twomixed-precision NVIDIA TENSOR COREs for deep learning matrix arithmetic,an L0 instruction cache, a warp scheduler, a dispatch unit, and/or a 64KB register file. In addition, the streaming microprocessors may includeindependent parallel integer and floating-point data paths to providefor efficient execution of workloads with a mix of computation andaddressing calculations. The streaming microprocessors may includeindependent thread scheduling capability to enable finer-grainsynchronization and cooperation between parallel threads. The streamingmicroprocessors may include a combined L1 data cache and shared memoryunit in order to improve performance while simplifying programming.

The GPU(s) 1308 may include a high bandwidth memory (HBM) and/or a 16 GBHBM2 memory subsystem to provide, in some examples, about 900 GB/secondpeak memory bandwidth. In some examples, in addition to, oralternatively from, the HBM memory, a synchronous graphics random-accessmemory (SGRAM) may be used, such as a graphics double data rate typefive synchronous random-access memory (GDDR5).

The GPU(s) 1308 may include unified memory technology including accesscounters to allow for more accurate migration of memory pages to theprocessor that accesses them most frequently, thereby improvingefficiency for memory ranges shared between processors. In someexamples, address translation services (ATS) support may be used toallow the GPU(s) 1308 to access the CPU(s) 1306 page tables directly. Insuch examples, when the GPU(s) 1308 memory management unit (MMU)experiences a miss, an address translation request may be transmitted tothe CPU(s) 1306. In response, the CPU(s) 1306 may look in its pagetables for the virtual-to-physical mapping for the address and transmitsthe translation back to the GPU(s) 1308. As such, unified memorytechnology may allow a single unified virtual address space for memoryof both the CPU(s) 1306 and the GPU(s) 1308, thereby simplifying theGPU(s) 1308 programming and porting of applications to the GPU(s) 1308.

In addition, the GPU(s) 1308 may include an access counter that may keeptrack of the frequency of access of the GPU(s) 1308 to memory of otherprocessors. The access counter may help ensure that memory pages aremoved to the physical memory of the processor that is accessing thepages most frequently.

The SoC(s) 1304 may include any number of cache(s) 1312, including thosedescribed herein. For example, the cache(s) 1312 may include an L3 cachethat is available to both the CPU(s) 1306 and the GPU(s) 1308 (e.g.,that is connected both the CPU(s) 1306 and the GPU(s) 1308). Thecache(s) 1312 may include a write-back cache that may keep track ofstates of lines, such as by using a cache coherence protocol (e.g., MEI,MESI, MSI, etc.). The L3 cache may include 4 MB or more, depending onthe embodiment, although smaller cache sizes may be used.

The SoC(s) 1304 may include one or more accelerators 1314 (e.g.,hardware accelerators, software accelerators, or a combination thereof).For example, the SoC(s) 1304 may include a hardware acceleration clusterthat may include optimized hardware accelerators and/or large on-chipmemory. The large on-chip memory (e.g., 4 MB of SRAM), may enable thehardware acceleration cluster to accelerate neural networks and othercalculations. The hardware acceleration cluster may be used tocomplement the GPU(s) 1308 and to off-load some of the tasks of theGPU(s) 1308 (e.g., to free up more cycles of the GPU(s) 1308 forperforming other tasks). As an example, the accelerator(s) 1314 may beused for targeted workloads (e.g., perception, convolutional neuralnetworks (CNNs), etc.) that are stable enough to be amenable toacceleration. The term “CNN,” as used herein, may include all types ofCNNs, including region-based or regional convolutional neural networks(RCNNs) and Fast RCNNs (e.g., as used for object detection).

The accelerator(s) 1314 (e.g., the hardware acceleration cluster) mayinclude a deep learning accelerator(s) (DLA). The DLA(s) may include oneor more Tensor processing units (TPUs) that may be configured to providean additional ten trillion operations per second for deep learningapplications and inferencing. The TPUs may be accelerators configuredto, and optimized for, performing image processing functions (e.g., forCNNs, RCNNs, etc.). The DLA(s) may further be optimized for a specificset of neural network types and floating point operations, as well asinferencing. The design of the DLA(s) may provide more performance permillimeter than a general-purpose GPU, and vastly exceeds theperformance of a CPU. The TPU(s) may perform several functions,including a single-instance convolution function, supporting, forexample, INT8, INT16, and FP16 data types for both features and weights,as well as post-processor functions.

The DLA(s) may quickly and efficiently execute neural networks,especially CNNs, on processed or unprocessed data for any of a varietyof functions, including, for example and without limitation: a CNN forobject identification and detection using data from camera sensors; aCNN for distance estimation using data from camera sensors; a CNN foremergency vehicle detection and identification and detection using datafrom microphones; a CNN for facial recognition and vehicle owneridentification using data from camera sensors; and/or a CNN for securityand/or safety related events.

The DLA(s) may perform any function of the GPU(s) 1308, and by using aninference accelerator, for example, a designer may target either theDLA(s) or the GPU(s) 1308 for any function. For example, the designermay focus processing of CNNs and floating point operations on the DLA(s)and leave other functions to the GPU(s) 1308 and/or other accelerator(s)1314.

The accelerator(s) 1314 (e.g., the hardware acceleration cluster) mayinclude a programmable vision accelerator(s) (PVA), which mayalternatively be referred to herein as a computer vision accelerator.The PVA(s) may be designed and configured to accelerate computer visionalgorithms for the advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), autonomousdriving, and/or augmented reality (AR) and/or virtual reality (VR)applications. The PVA(s) may provide a balance between performance andflexibility. For example, each PVA(s) may include, for example andwithout limitation, any number of reduced instruction set computer(RISC) cores, direct memory access (DMA), and/or any number of vectorprocessors.

The RISC cores may interact with image sensors (e.g., the image sensorsof any of the cameras described herein), image signal processor(s),and/or the like. Each of the RISC cores may include any amount ofmemory. The RISC cores may use any of a number of protocols, dependingon the embodiment. In some examples, the RISC cores may execute areal-time operating system (RTOS). The RISC cores may be implementedusing one or more integrated circuit devices, application specificintegrated circuits (ASICs), and/or memory devices. For example, theRISC cores may include an instruction cache and/or a tightly coupledRAM.

The DMA may enable components of the PVA(s) to access the system memoryindependently of the CPU(s) 1306. The DMA may support any number offeatures used to provide optimization to the PVA including, but notlimited to, supporting multi-dimensional addressing and/or circularaddressing. In some examples, the DMA may support up to six or moredimensions of addressing, which may include block width, block height,block depth, horizontal block stepping, vertical block stepping, and/ordepth stepping.

The vector processors may be programmable processors that may bedesigned to efficiently and flexibly execute programming for computervision algorithms and provide signal processing capabilities. In someexamples, the PVA may include a PVA core and two vector processingsubsystem partitions. The PVA core may include a processor subsystem,DMA engine(s) (e.g., two DMA engines), and/or other peripherals. Thevector processing subsystem may operate as the primary processing engineof the PVA, and may include a vector processing unit (VPU), aninstruction cache, and/or vector memory (e.g., VMEM). A VPU core mayinclude a digital signal processor such as, for example, a singleinstruction, multiple data (SIMD), very long instruction word (VLIW)digital signal processor. The combination of the SIMD and VLIW mayenhance throughput and speed.

Each of the vector processors may include an instruction cache and maybe coupled to dedicated memory. As a result, in some examples, each ofthe vector processors may be configured to execute independently of theother vector processors. In other examples, the vector processors thatare included in a particular PVA may be configured to employ dataparallelism. For example, in some embodiments, the plurality of vectorprocessors included in a single PVA may execute the same computer visionalgorithm, but on different regions of an image. In other examples, thevector processors included in a particular PVA may simultaneouslyexecute different computer vision algorithms, on the same image, or evenexecute different algorithms on sequential images or portions of animage. Among other things, any number of PVAs may be included in thehardware acceleration cluster and any number of vector processors may beincluded in each of the PVAs. In addition, the PVA(s) may includeadditional error correcting code (ECC) memory, to enhance overall systemsafety.

The accelerator(s) 1314 (e.g., the hardware acceleration cluster) mayinclude a computer vision network on-chip and SRAM, for providing ahigh-bandwidth, low latency SRAM for the accelerator(s) 1314. In someexamples, the on-chip memory may include at least 4 MB SRAM, consistingof, for example and without limitation, eight field-configurable memoryblocks, that may be accessible by both the PVA and the DLA. Each pair ofmemory blocks may include an advanced peripheral bus (APB) interface,configuration circuitry, a controller, and a multiplexer. Any type ofmemory may be used. The PVA and DLA may access the memory via a backbonethat provides the PVA and DLA with high-speed access to memory. Thebackbone may include a computer vision network on-chip thatinterconnects the PVA and the DLA to the memory (e.g., using the APB).

The computer vision network on-chip may include an interface thatdetermines, before transmission of any control signal/address/data, thatboth the PVA and the DLA provide ready and valid signals. Such aninterface may provide for separate phases and separate channels fortransmitting control signals/addresses/data, as well as burst-typecommunications for continuous data transfer. This type of interface maycomply with ISO 26262 or IEC 61508 standards, although other standardsand protocols may be used.

In some examples, the SoC(s) 1304 may include a real-time ray-tracinghardware accelerator, such as described in U.S. patent application Ser.No. 16/101,232, filed on Aug. 10, 2018. The real-time ray-tracinghardware accelerator may be used to quickly and efficiently determinethe positions and extents of objects (e.g., within a world model), togenerate real-time visualization simulations, for RADAR signalinterpretation, for sound propagation synthesis and/or analysis, forsimulation of SONAR systems, for general wave propagation simulation,for comparison to LIDAR data for purposes of localization and/or otherfunctions, and/or for other uses.

The accelerator(s) 1314 (e.g., the hardware accelerator cluster) have awide array of uses for autonomous driving. The PVA may be a programmablevision accelerator that may be used for key processing stages in ADASand autonomous vehicles. The PVA's capabilities are a good match foralgorithmic domains needing predictable processing, at low power and lowlatency. In other words, the PVA performs well on semi-dense or denseregular computation, even on small data sets, which need predictablerun-times with low latency and low power. Thus, in the context ofplatforms for autonomous vehicles, the PVAs are designed to run classiccomputer vision algorithms, as they are efficient at object detectionand operating on integer math.

For example, according to one embodiment of the technology, the PVA isused to perform computer stereo vision. A semi-global matching-basedalgorithm may be used in some examples, although this is not intended tobe limiting. Many applications for Level 3-5 autonomous driving requiremotion estimation/stereo matching on-the-fly (e.g., structure frommotion, pedestrian recognition, lane detection, etc.). The PVA mayperform computer stereo vision function on inputs from two monocularcameras.

In some examples, the PVA may be used to perform dense optical flow.According to process raw RADAR data (e.g., using a 4D Fast FourierTransform) to provide Processed RADAR. In other examples, the PVA isused for time of flight depth processing, by processing raw time offlight data to provide processed time of flight data, for example.

The DLA may be used to run any type of network to enhance control anddriving safety, including for example, a neural network that outputs ameasure of confidence for each object detection. Such a confidence valuemay be interpreted as a probability, or as providing a relative “weight”of each detection compared to other detections. This confidence valueenables the system to make further decisions regarding which detectionsshould be considered as true positive detections rather than falsepositive detections. For example, the system may set a threshold valuefor the confidence and consider only the detections exceeding thethreshold value as true positive detections. In an automatic emergencybraking (AEB) system, false positive detections would cause the vehicleto automatically perform emergency braking, which is obviouslyundesirable. Therefore, only the most confident detections should beconsidered as triggers for AEB. The DLA may run a neural network forregressing the confidence value. The neural network may take as itsinput at least some subset of parameters, such as bounding boxdimensions, ground plane estimate obtained (e.g. from anothersubsystem), inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor 1366 output thatcorrelates with the vehicle 1300 orientation, distance, 3D locationestimates of the object obtained from the neural network and/or othersensors (e.g., LIDAR sensor(s) 1364 or RADAR sensor(s) 1360), amongothers.

The SoC(s) 1304 may include data store(s) 1316 (e.g., memory). The datastore(s) 1316 may be on-chip memory of the SoC(s) 1304, which may storeneural networks to be executed on the GPU and/or the DLA. In someexamples, the data store(s) 1316 may be large enough in capacity tostore multiple instances of neural networks for redundancy and safety.The data store(s) 1312 may comprise L2 or L3 cache(s) 1312. Reference tothe data store(s) 1316 may include reference to the memory associatedwith the PVA, DLA, and/or other accelerator(s) 1314, as describedherein.

The SoC(s) 1304 may include one or more processor(s) 1310 (e.g.,embedded processors). The processor(s) 1310 may include a boot and powermanagement processor that may be a dedicated processor and subsystem tohandle boot power and management functions and related securityenforcement. The boot and power management processor may be a part ofthe SoC(s) 1304 boot sequence and may provide runtime power managementservices. The boot power and management processor may provide clock andvoltage programming, assistance in system low power state transitions,management of SoC(s) 1304 thermals and temperature sensors, and/ormanagement of the SoC(s) 1304 power states. Each temperature sensor maybe implemented as a ring-oscillator whose output frequency isproportional to temperature, and the SoC(s) 1304 may use thering-oscillators to detect temperatures of the CPU(s) 1306, GPU(s) 1308,and/or accelerator(s) 1314. If temperatures are determined to exceed athreshold, the boot and power management processor may enter atemperature fault routine and put the SoC(s) 1304 into a lower powerstate and/or put the vehicle 1300 into a chauffeur to safe stop mode(e.g., bring the vehicle 1300 to a safe stop).

The processor(s) 1310 may further include a set of embedded processorsthat may serve as an audio processing engine. The audio processingengine may be an audio subsystem that enables full hardware support formulti-channel audio over multiple interfaces, and a broad and flexiblerange of audio I/O interfaces. In some examples, the audio processingengine is a dedicated processor core with a digital signal processorwith dedicated RAM.

The processor(s) 1310 may further include an always on processor enginethat may provide necessary hardware features to support low power sensormanagement and wake use cases. The always on processor engine mayinclude a processor core, a tightly coupled RAM, supporting peripherals(e.g., timers and interrupt controllers), various I/O controllerperipherals, and routing logic.

The processor(s) 1310 may further include a safety cluster engine thatincludes a dedicated processor subsystem to handle safety management forautomotive applications. The safety cluster engine may include two ormore processor cores, a tightly coupled RAM, support peripherals (e.g.,timers, an interrupt controller, etc.), and/or routing logic. In asafety mode, the two or more cores may operate in a lockstep mode andfunction as a single core with comparison logic to detect anydifferences between their operations.

The processor(s) 1310 may further include a real-time camera engine thatmay include a dedicated processor subsystem for handling real-timecamera management.

The processor(s) 1310 may further include a high-dynamic range signalprocessor that may include an image signal processor that is a hardwareengine that is part of the camera processing pipeline.

The processor(s) 1310 may include a video image compositor that may be aprocessing block (e.g., implemented on a microprocessor) that implementsvideo post-processing functions needed by a video playback applicationto produce the final image for the player window. The video imagecompositor may perform lens distortion correction on wide-view camera(s)1370, surround camera(s) 1374, and/or on in-cabin monitoring camerasensors. In-cabin monitoring camera sensor is preferably monitored by aneural network running on another instance of the Advanced SoC,configured to identify in cabin events and respond accordingly. Anin-cabin system may perform lip reading to activate cellular service andplace a phone call, dictate emails, change the vehicle's destination,activate or change the vehicle's infotainment system and settings, orprovide voice-activated web surfing. Certain functions are available tothe driver only when the vehicle is operating in an autonomous mode, andare disabled otherwise.

The video image compositor may include enhanced temporal noise reductionfor both spatial and temporal noise reduction. For example, where motionoccurs in a video, the noise reduction weights spatial informationappropriately, decreasing the weight of information provided by adjacentframes. Where an image or portion of an image does not include motion,the temporal noise reduction performed by the video image compositor mayuse information from the previous image to reduce noise in the currentimage.

The video image compositor may also be configured to perform stereorectification on input stereo lens frames. The video image compositormay further be used for user interface composition when the operatingsystem desktop is in use, and the GPU(s) 1308 is not required tocontinuously render new surfaces. Even when the GPU(s) 1308 is poweredon and active doing 3D rendering, the video image compositor may be usedto offload the GPU(s) 1308 to improve performance and responsiveness.

The SoC(s) 1304 may further include a mobile industry processorinterface (MIPI) camera serial interface for receiving video and inputfrom cameras, a high-speed interface, and/or a video input block thatmay be used for camera and related pixel input functions. The SoC(s)1304 may further include an input/output controller(s) that may becontrolled by software and may be used for receiving I/O signals thatare uncommitted to a specific role.

The SoC(s) 1304 may further include a broad range of peripheralinterfaces to enable communication with peripherals, audio codecs, powermanagement, and/or other devices. The SoC(s) 1304 may be used to processdata from cameras (e.g., connected over Gigabit Multimedia Serial Linkand Ethernet), sensors (e.g., LIDAR sensor(s) 1364, RADAR sensor(s)1360, etc. that may be connected over Ethernet), data from bus 1302(e.g., speed of vehicle 1300, steering wheel position, etc.), data fromGNSS sensor(s) 1358 (e.g., connected over Ethernet or CAN bus). TheSoC(s) 1304 may further include dedicated high-performance mass storagecontrollers that may include their own DMA engines, and that may be usedto free the CPU(s) 1306 from routine data management tasks.

The SoC(s) 1304 may be an end-to-end platform with a flexiblearchitecture that spans automation levels 3-5, thereby providing acomprehensive functional safety architecture that leverages and makesefficient use of computer vision and ADAS techniques for diversity andredundancy, provides a platform for a flexible, reliable drivingsoftware stack, along with deep learning tools. The SoC(s) 1304 may befaster, more reliable, and even more energy-efficient andspace-efficient than conventional systems. For example, theaccelerator(s) 1314, when combined with the CPU(s) 1306, the GPU(s)1308, and the data store(s) 1316, may provide for a fast, efficientplatform for level 3-5 autonomous vehicles.

The technology thus provides capabilities and functionality that cannotbe achieved by conventional systems. For example, computer visionalgorithms may be executed on CPUs, which may be configured usinghigh-level programming language, such as the C programming language, toexecute a wide variety of processing algorithms across a wide variety ofvisual data. However, CPUs are oftentimes unable to meet the performancerequirements of many computer vision applications, such as those relatedto execution time and power consumption, for example. In particular,many CPUs are unable to execute complex object detection algorithms inreal-time, which is a requirement of in-vehicle ADAS applications, and arequirement for practical Level 3-5 autonomous vehicles.

In contrast to conventional systems, by providing a CPU complex, GPUcomplex, and a hardware acceleration cluster, the technology describedherein allows for multiple neural networks to be performedsimultaneously and/or sequentially, and for the results to be combinedtogether to enable Level 3-5 autonomous driving functionality. Forexample, a CNN executing on the DLA or dGPU (e.g., the GPU(s) 1320) mayinclude a text and word recognition, allowing the supercomputer to readand understand traffic signs, including signs for which the neuralnetwork has not been specifically trained. The DLA may further include aneural network that is able to identify, interpret, and providessemantic understanding of the sign, and to pass that semanticunderstanding to the path planning modules running on the CPU Complex.

As another example, multiple neural networks may be run simultaneously,as is required for Level 3, 4, or 5 driving. For example, a warning signconsisting of “Caution: flashing lights indicate icy conditions,” alongwith an electric light, may be independently or collectively interpretedby several neural networks. The sign itself may be identified as atraffic sign by a first deployed neural network (e.g., a neural networkthat has been trained), the text “Flashing lights indicate icyconditions” may be interpreted by a second deployed neural network,which informs the vehicle's path planning software (preferably executingon the CPU Complex) that when flashing lights are detected, icyconditions exist. The flashing light may be identified by operating athird deployed neural network over multiple frames, informing thevehicle's path-planning software of the presence (or absence) offlashing lights. All three neural networks may run simultaneously, suchas within the DLA and/or on the GPU(s) 1308.

In some examples, a CNN for facial recognition and vehicle owneridentification may use data from camera sensors to identify the presenceof an authorized driver and/or owner of the vehicle 1300. The always onsensor processing engine may be used to unlock the vehicle when theowner approaches the driver door and turn on the lights, and, insecurity mode, to disable the vehicle when the owner leaves the vehicle.In this way, the SoC(s) 1304 provide for security against theft and/orcarjacking.

In another example, a CNN for emergency vehicle detection andidentification may use data from microphones 1396 to detect and identifyemergency vehicle sirens. In contrast to conventional systems, that usegeneral classifiers to detect sirens and manually extract features, theSoC(s) 1304 use the CNN for classifying environmental and urban sounds,as well as classifying visual data. In a preferred embodiment, the CNNrunning on the DLA is trained to identify the relative closing speed ofthe emergency vehicle (e.g., by using the Doppler Effect). The CNN mayalso be trained to identify emergency vehicles specific to the localarea in which the vehicle is operating, as identified by GNSS sensor(s)1358. Thus, for example, when operating in Europe the CNN will seek todetect European sirens, and when in the United States the CNN will seekto identify only North American sirens. Once an emergency vehicle isdetected, a control program may be used to execute an emergency vehiclesafety routine, slowing the vehicle, pulling over to the side of theroad, parking the vehicle, and/or idling the vehicle, with theassistance of ultrasonic sensors 1362, until the emergency vehicle(s)passes.

The vehicle may include a CPU(s) 1318 (e.g., discrete CPU(s), ordCPU(s)), that may be coupled to the SoC(s) 1304 via a high-speedinterconnect (e.g., PCIe). The CPU(s) 1318 may include an X86 processor,for example. The CPU(s) 1318 may be used to perform any of a variety offunctions, including arbitrating potentially inconsistent resultsbetween ADAS sensors and the SoC(s) 1304, and/or monitoring the statusand health of the controller(s) 1336 and/or infotainment SoC 1330, forexample.

The vehicle 1300 may include a GPU(s) 1320 (e.g., discrete GPU(s), ordGPU(s)), that may be coupled to the SoC(s) 1304 via a high-speedinterconnect (e.g., NVIDIA's NVLINK). The GPU(s) 1320 may provideadditional artificial intelligence functionality, such as by executingredundant and/or different neural networks, and may be used to trainand/or update neural networks based on input (e.g., sensor data) fromsensors of the vehicle 1300.

The vehicle 1300 may further include the network interface 1324 whichmay include one or more wireless antennas 1326 (e.g., one or morewireless antennas for different communication protocols, such as acellular antenna, a Bluetooth antenna, etc.). The network interface 1324may be used to enable wireless connectivity over the Internet with thecloud (e.g., with the server(s) 1378 and/or other network devices), withother vehicles, and/or with computing devices (e.g., client devices ofpassengers). To communicate with other vehicles, a direct link may beestablished between the two vehicles and/or an indirect link may beestablished (e.g., across networks and over the Internet). Direct linksmay be provided using a vehicle-to-vehicle communication link. Thevehicle-to-vehicle communication link may provide the vehicle 1300information about vehicles in proximity to the vehicle 1300 (e.g.,vehicles in front of, on the side of, and/or behind the vehicle 1300).This functionality may be part of a cooperative adaptive cruise controlfunctionality of the vehicle 1300.

The network interface 1324 may include a SoC that provides modulationand demodulation functionality and enables the controller(s) 1336 tocommunicate over wireless networks. The network interface 1324 mayinclude a radio frequency front-end for up-conversion from baseband toradio frequency, and down conversion from radio frequency to baseband.The frequency conversions may be performed through well-known processes,and/or may be performed using super-heterodyne processes. In someexamples, the radio frequency front end functionality may be provided bya separate chip. The network interface may include wirelessfunctionality for communicating over LTE, WCDMA, UMTS, GSM, CDMA2000,Bluetooth, Bluetooth LE, Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, ZigBee, LoRaWAN, and/or otherwireless protocols.

The vehicle 1300 may further include data store(s) 1328 which mayinclude off-chip (e.g., off the SoC(s) 1304) storage. The data store(s)1328 may include one or more storage elements including RAM, SRAM, DRAM,VRAM, Flash, hard disks, and/or other components and/or devices that maystore at least one bit of data.

The vehicle 1300 may further include GNSS sensor(s) 1358. The GNSSsensor(s) 1358 (e.g., GPS and/or assisted GPS sensors), to assist inmapping, perception, occupancy grid generation, and/or path planningfunctions. Any number of GNSS sensor(s) 1358 may be used, including, forexample and without limitation, a GPS using a USB connector with anEthernet to Serial (RS-232) bridge.

The vehicle 1300 may further include RADAR sensor(s) 1360. The RADARsensor(s) 1360 may be used by the vehicle 1300 for long-range vehicledetection, even in darkness and/or severe weather conditions. RADARfunctional safety levels may be ASIL B. The RADAR sensor(s) 1360 may usethe CAN and/or the bus 1302 (e.g., to transmit data generated by theRADAR sensor(s) 1360) for control and to access object tracking data,with access to Ethernet to access raw data in some examples. A widevariety of RADAR sensor types may be used. For example, and withoutlimitation, the RADAR sensor(s) 1360 may be suitable for front, rear,and side RADAR use. In some example, Pulse Doppler RADAR sensor(s) areused.

The RADAR sensor(s) 1360 may include different configurations, such aslong range with narrow field of view, short range with wide field ofview, short range side coverage, etc. In some examples, long-range RADARmay be used for adaptive cruise control functionality. The long-rangeRADAR systems may provide a broad field of view realized by two or moreindependent scans, such as within a 250 m range. The RADAR sensor(s)1360 may help in distinguishing between static and moving objects, andmay be used by ADAS systems for emergency brake assist and forwardcollision warning. Long-range RADAR sensors may include monostaticmultimodal RADAR with multiple (e.g., six or more) fixed RADAR antennaeand a high-speed CAN and FlexRay interface. In an example with sixantennae, the central four antennae may create a focused beam pattern,designed to record the vehicle's 1300 surroundings at higher speeds withminimal interference from traffic in adjacent lanes. The other twoantennae may expand the field of view, making it possible to quicklydetect vehicles entering or leaving the vehicle's 1300 lane.

Mid-range RADAR systems may include, as an example, a range of up to1360 m (front) or 80 m (rear), and a field of view of up to 42 degrees(front) or 1350 degrees (rear). Short-range RADAR systems may include,without limitation, RADAR sensors designed to be installed at both endsof the rear bumper. When installed at both ends of the rear bumper, sucha RADAR sensor systems may create two beams that constantly monitor theblind spot in the rear and next to the vehicle.

Short-range RADAR systems may be used in an ADAS system for blind spotdetection and/or lane change assist.

The vehicle 1300 may further include ultrasonic sensor(s) 1362. Theultrasonic sensor(s) 1362, which may be positioned at the front, back,and/or the sides of the vehicle 1300, may be used for park assist and/orto create and update an occupancy grid. A wide variety of ultrasonicsensor(s) 1362 may be used, and different ultrasonic sensor(s) 1362 maybe used for different ranges of detection (e.g., 2.5 m, 4 m). Theultrasonic sensor(s) 1362 may operate at functional safety levels ofASIL B.

The vehicle 1300 may include LIDAR sensor(s) 1364. The LIDAR sensor(s)1364 may be used for object and pedestrian detection, emergency braking,collision avoidance, and/or other functions. The LIDAR sensor(s) 1364may be functional safety level ASIL B. In some examples, the vehicle1300 may include multiple LIDAR sensors 1364 (e.g., two, four, six,etc.) that may use Ethernet (e.g., to provide data to a Gigabit Ethernetswitch).

In some examples, the LIDAR sensor(s) 1364 may be capable of providing alist of objects and their distances for a 360-degree field of view.Commercially available LIDAR sensor(s) 1364 may have an advertised rangeof approximately 1300 m, with an accuracy of 2 cm-3 cm, and with supportfor a 1300 Mbps Ethernet connection, for example. In some examples, oneor more non-protruding LIDAR sensors 1364 may be used. In such examples,the LIDAR sensor(s) 1364 may be implemented as a small device that maybe embedded into the front, rear, sides, and/or corners of the vehicle1300. The LIDAR sensor(s) 1364, in such examples, may provide up to a1320-degree horizontal and 35-degree vertical field-of-view, with a 200m range even for low-reflectivity objects. Front-mounted LIDAR sensor(s)1364 may be configured for a horizontal field of view between 45 degreesand 135 degrees.

In some examples, LIDAR technologies, such as 3D flash LIDAR, may alsobe used. 3D Flash LIDAR uses a flash of a laser as a transmissionsource, to illuminate vehicle surroundings up to approximately 200 m. Aflash LIDAR unit includes a receptor, which records the laser pulsetransit time and the reflected light on each pixel, which in turncorresponds to the range from the vehicle to the objects. Flash LIDARmay allow for highly accurate and distortion-free images of thesurroundings to be generated with every laser flash. In some examples,four flash LIDAR sensors may be deployed, one at each side of thevehicle 1300. Available 3D flash LIDAR systems include a solid-state 3Dstaring array LIDAR camera with no moving parts other than a fan (e.g.,a non-scanning LIDAR device). The flash LIDAR device may use a 5nanosecond class I (eye-safe) laser pulse per frame and may capture thereflected laser light in the form of 3D range point clouds andco-registered intensity data. By using flash LIDAR, and because flashLIDAR is a solid-state device with no moving parts, the LIDAR sensor(s)1364 may be less susceptible to motion blur, vibration, and/or shock.

The vehicle may further include IMU sensor(s) 1366. The IMU sensor(s)1366 may be located at a center of the rear axle of the vehicle 1300, insome examples. The IMU sensor(s) 1366 may include, for example andwithout limitation, an accelerometer(s), a magnetometer(s), agyroscope(s), a magnetic compass(es), and/or other sensor types. In someexamples, such as in six-axis applications, the IMU sensor(s) 1366 mayinclude accelerometers and gyroscopes, while in nine-axis applications,the IMU sensor(s) 1366 may include accelerometers, gyroscopes, andmagnetometers.

In some embodiments, the IMU sensor(s) 1366 may be implemented as aminiature, high performance GPS-Aided Inertial Navigation System(GPS/INS) that combines micro-electro-mechanical systems (MEMS) inertialsensors, a high-sensitivity GPS receiver, and advanced Kalman filteringalgorithms to provide estimates of position, velocity, and attitude. Assuch, in some examples, the IMU sensor(s) 1366 may enable the vehicle1300 to estimate heading without requiring input from a magnetic sensorby directly observing and correlating the changes in velocity from GPSto the IMU sensor(s) 1366. In some examples, the IMU sensor(s) 1366 andthe GNSS sensor(s) 1358 may be combined in a single integrated unit.

The vehicle may include microphone(s) 1396 placed in and/or around thevehicle 1300. The microphone(s) 1396 may be used for emergency vehicledetection and identification, among other things.

The vehicle may further include any number of camera types, includingstereo camera(s) 1368, wide-view camera(s) 1370, infrared camera(s)1372, surround camera(s) 1374, long-range and/or mid-range camera(s)1398, and/or other camera types. The cameras may be used to captureimage data around an entire periphery of the vehicle 1300. The types ofcameras used depends on the embodiments and requirements for the vehicle1300, and any combination of camera types may be used to provide thenecessary coverage around the vehicle 1300. In addition, the number ofcameras may differ depending on the embodiment. For example, the vehiclemay include six cameras, seven cameras, ten cameras, twelve cameras,and/or another number of cameras. The cameras may support, as an exampleand without limitation, Gigabit Multimedia Serial Link (GMSL) and/orGigabit Ethernet. Each of the camera(s) is described with more detailherein with respect to FIG. 13A and FIG. 13B.

The vehicle 1300 may further include vibration sensor(s) 1342. Thevibration sensor(s) 1342 may measure vibrations of components of thevehicle, such as the axle(s). For example, changes in vibrations mayindicate a change in road surfaces. In another example, when two or morevibration sensors 1342 are used, the differences between the vibrationsmay be used to determine friction or slippage of the road surface (e.g.,when the difference in vibration is between a power-driven axle and afreely rotating axle).

The vehicle 1300 may include an ADAS system 1338. The ADAS system 1338may include a SoC, in some examples. The ADAS system 1338 may includeautonomous/adaptive/automatic cruise control (ACC), cooperative adaptivecruise control (CACC), forward crash warning (FCW), automatic emergencybraking (AEB), lane departure warnings (LDW), lane keep assist (LKA),blind spot warning (BSW), rear cross-traffic warning (RCTW), collisionwarning systems (CWS), lane centering (LC), and/or other features andfunctionality.

The ACC systems may use RADAR sensor(s) 1360, LIDAR sensor(s) 1364,and/or a camera(s). The ACC systems may include longitudinal ACC and/orlateral ACC. Longitudinal ACC monitors and controls the distance to thevehicle immediately ahead of the vehicle 1300 and automatically adjustthe vehicle speed to maintain a safe distance from vehicles ahead.Lateral ACC performs distance keeping, and advises the vehicle 1300 tochange lanes when necessary. Lateral ACC is related to other ADASapplications such as LCA and CWS.

CACC uses information from other vehicles that may be received via thenetwork interface 1324 and/or the wireless antenna(s) 1326 from othervehicles via a wireless link, or indirectly, over a network connection(e.g., over the Internet). Direct links may be provided by avehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication link, while indirect links may beinfrastructure-to-vehicle (I2V) communication link. In general, the V2Vcommunication concept provides information about the immediatelypreceding vehicles (e.g., vehicles immediately ahead of and in the samelane as the vehicle 1300), while the I2V communication concept providesinformation about traffic further ahead. CACC systems may include eitheror both I2V and V2V information sources. Given the information of thevehicles ahead of the vehicle 1300, CACC may be more reliable and it haspotential to improve traffic flow smoothness and reduce congestion onthe road.

FCW systems are designed to alert the driver to a hazard, so that thedriver may take corrective action. FCW systems use a front-facing cameraand/or RADAR sensor(s) 1360, coupled to a dedicated processor, DSP,FPGA, and/or ASIC, that is electrically coupled to driver feedback, suchas a display, speaker, and/or vibrating component. FCW systems mayprovide a warning, such as in the form of a sound, visual warning,vibration and/or a quick brake pulse.

AEB systems detect an impending forward collision with another vehicleor other object, and may automatically apply the brakes if the driverdoes not take corrective action within a specified time or distanceparameter. AEB systems may use front-facing camera(s) and/or RADARsensor(s) 1360, coupled to a dedicated processor, DSP, FPGA, and/orASIC. When the AEB system detects a hazard, it typically first alertsthe driver to take corrective action to avoid the collision and, if thedriver does not take corrective action, the AEB system may automaticallyapply the brakes in an effort to prevent, or at least mitigate, theimpact of the predicted collision. AEB systems, may include techniquessuch as dynamic brake support and/or crash imminent braking.

LDW systems provide visual, audible, and/or tactile warnings, such assteering wheel or seat vibrations, to alert the driver when the vehicle1300 crosses lane markings. A LDW system does not activate when thedriver indicates an intentional lane departure, by activating a turnsignal. LDW systems may use front-side facing cameras, coupled to adedicated processor, DSP, FPGA, and/or ASIC, that is electricallycoupled to driver feedback, such as a display, speaker, and/or vibratingcomponent.

LKA systems are a variation of LDW systems. LKA systems provide steeringinput or braking to correct the vehicle 1300 if the vehicle 1300 startsto exit the lane.

BSW systems detects and warn the driver of vehicles in an automobile'sblind spot. BSW systems may provide a visual, audible, and/or tactilealert to indicate that merging or changing lanes is unsafe. The systemmay provide an additional warning when the driver uses a turn signal.BSW systems may use rear-side facing camera(s) and/or RADAR sensor(s)1360, coupled to a dedicated processor, DSP, FPGA, and/or ASIC, that iselectrically coupled to driver feedback, such as a display, speaker,and/or vibrating component.

RCTW systems may provide visual, audible, and/or tactile notificationwhen an object is detected outside the rear-camera range when thevehicle 1300 is backing up. Some RCTW systems include AEB to ensure thatthe vehicle brakes are applied to avoid a crash. RCTW systems may useone or more rear-facing RADAR sensor(s) 1360, coupled to a dedicatedprocessor, DSP, FPGA, and/or ASIC, that is electrically coupled todriver feedback, such as a display, speaker, and/or vibrating component.

Conventional ADAS systems may be prone to false positive results whichmay be annoying and distracting to a driver, but typically are notcatastrophic, because the ADAS systems alert the driver and allow thedriver to decide whether a safety condition truly exists and actaccordingly. However, in an autonomous vehicle 1300, the vehicle 1300itself must, in the case of conflicting results, decide whether to heedthe result from a primary computer or a secondary computer (e.g., afirst controller 1336 or a second controller 1336). For example, in someembodiments, the ADAS system 1338 may be a backup and/or secondarycomputer for providing perception information to a backup computerrationality module. The backup computer rationality monitor may run aredundant diverse software on hardware components to detect faults inperception and dynamic driving tasks. Outputs from the ADAS system 1338may be provided to a supervisory MCU. If outputs from the primarycomputer and the secondary computer conflict, the supervisory MCU mustdetermine how to reconcile the conflict to ensure safe operation.

In some examples, the primary computer may be configured to provide thesupervisory MCU with a confidence score, indicating the primarycomputer's confidence in the chosen result. If the confidence scoreexceeds a threshold, the supervisory MCU may follow the primarycomputer's direction, regardless of whether the secondary computerprovides a conflicting or inconsistent result. Where the confidencescore does not meet the threshold, and where the primary and secondarycomputer indicate different results (e.g., the conflict), thesupervisory MCU may arbitrate between the computers to determine theappropriate outcome.

The supervisory MCU may be configured to run a neural network(s) that istrained and configured to determine, based on outputs from the primarycomputer and the secondary computer, conditions under which thesecondary computer provides false alarms. Thus, the neural network(s) inthe supervisory MCU may learn when the secondary computer's output maybe trusted, and when it cannot. For example, when the secondary computeris a RADAR-based FCW system, a neural network(s) in the supervisory MCUmay learn when the FCW system is identifying metallic objects that arenot, in fact, hazards, such as a drainage grate or manhole cover thattriggers an alarm. Similarly, when the secondary computer is acamera-based LDW system, a neural network in the supervisory MCU maylearn to override the LDW when bicyclists or pedestrians are present anda lane departure is, in fact, the safest maneuver. In embodiments thatinclude a neural network(s) running on the supervisory MCU, thesupervisory MCU may include at least one of a DLA or GPU suitable forrunning the neural network(s) with associated memory. In preferredembodiments, the supervisory MCU may comprise and/or be included as acomponent of the SoC(s) 1304.

In other examples, ADAS system 1338 may include a secondary computerthat performs ADAS functionality using traditional rules of computervision. As such, the secondary computer may use classic computer visionrules (if-then), and the presence of a neural network(s) in thesupervisory MCU may improve reliability, safety and performance. Forexample, the diverse implementation and intentional non-identity makesthe overall system more fault-tolerant, especially to faults caused bysoftware (or software-hardware interface) functionality. For example, ifthere is a software bug or error in the software running on the primarycomputer, and the non-identical software code running on the secondarycomputer provides the same overall result, the supervisory MCU may havegreater confidence that the overall result is correct, and the bug insoftware or hardware on primary computer is not causing material error.

In some examples, the output of the ADAS system 1338 may be fed into theprimary computer's perception block and/or the primary computer'sdynamic driving task block. For example, if the ADAS system 1338indicates a forward crash warning due to an object immediately ahead,the perception block may use this information when identifying objects.In other examples, the secondary computer may have its own neuralnetwork which is trained and thus reduces the risk of false positives,as described herein.

The vehicle 1300 may further include the infotainment SoC 1330 (e.g., anin-vehicle infotainment system (IVI)). Although illustrated anddescribed as a SoC, the infotainment system may not be a SoC, and mayinclude two or more discrete components. The infotainment SoC 1330 mayinclude a combination of hardware and software that may be used toprovide audio (e.g., music, a personal digital assistant, navigationalinstructions, news, radio, etc.), video (e.g., TV, movies, streaming,etc.), phone (e.g., hands-free calling), network connectivity (e.g.,LTE, Wi-Fi, etc.), and/or information services (e.g., navigationsystems, rear-parking assistance, a radio data system, vehicle relatedinformation such as fuel level, total distance covered, brake fuellevel, oil level, door open/close, air filter information, etc.) to thevehicle 1300. For example, the infotainment SoC 1330 may radios, diskplayers, navigation systems, video players, USB and Bluetoothconnectivity, carputers, in-car entertainment, Wi-Fi, steering wheelaudio controls, hands free voice control, a heads-up display (HUD), anHMI display 1334, a telematics device, a control panel (e.g., forcontrolling and/or interacting with various components, features, and/orsystems), and/or other components. The infotainment SoC 1330 may furtherbe used to provide information (e.g., visual and/or audible) to auser(s) of the vehicle, such as information from the ADAS system 1338,autonomous driving information such as planned vehicle maneuvers,trajectories, surrounding environment information (e.g., intersectioninformation, vehicle information, road information, etc.), and/or otherinformation.

The infotainment SoC 1330 may include GPU functionality. Theinfotainment SoC 1330 may communicate over the bus 1302 (e.g., CAN bus,Ethernet, etc.) with other devices, systems, and/or components of thevehicle 1300. In some examples, the infotainment SoC 1330 may be coupledto a supervisory MCU such that the GPU of the infotainment system mayperform some self-driving functions in the event that the primarycontroller(s) 1336 (e.g., the primary and/or backup computers of thevehicle 1300) fail. In such an example, the infotainment SoC 1330 mayput the vehicle 1300 into a chauffeur to safe stop mode, as describedherein.

The vehicle 1300 may further include an instrument cluster 1332 (e.g., adigital dash, an electronic instrument cluster, a digital instrumentpanel, etc.). The instrument cluster 1332 may include a controllerand/or supercomputer (e.g., a discrete controller or supercomputer). Theinstrument cluster 1332 may include a set of instrumentation such as aspeedometer, fuel level, oil pressure, tachometer, odometer, turnindicators, gearshift position indicator, seat belt warning light(s),parking-brake warning light(s), engine-malfunction light(s), airbag(SRS) system information, lighting controls, safety system controls,navigation information, etc. In some examples, information may bedisplayed and/or shared among the infotainment SoC 1330 and theinstrument cluster 1332. In other words, the instrument cluster 1332 maybe included as part of the infotainment SoC 1330, or vice versa.

FIG. 13D is a system diagram for communication between cloud-basedserver(s) and the example autonomous vehicle 1300 of FIG. 13A, inaccordance with some embodiments of the present disclosure. The system1376 may include server(s) 1378, network(s) 1390, and vehicles,including the vehicle 1300. The server(s) 1378 may include a pluralityof GPUs 1384(A)-1384(H) (collectively referred to herein as GPUs 1384),PCIe switches 1382(A)-1382(H) (collectively referred to herein as PCIeswitches 1382), and/or CPUs 1380(A)-1380(B) (collectively referred toherein as CPUs 1380). The GPUs 1384, the CPUs 1380, and the PCIeswitches may be interconnected with high-speed interconnects such as,for example and without limitation, NVLink interfaces 1388 developed byNVIDIA and/or PCIe connections 1386. In some examples, the GPUs 1384 areconnected via NVLink and/or NVSwitch SoC and the GPUs 1384 and the PCIeswitches 1382 are connected via PCIe interconnects. Although eight GPUs1384, two CPUs 1380, and two PCIe switches are illustrated, this is notintended to be limiting. Depending on the embodiment, each of theserver(s) 1378 may include any number of GPUs 1384, CPUs 1380, and/orPCIe switches. For example, the server(s) 1378 may each include eight,sixteen, thirty-two, and/or more GPUs 1384.

The server(s) 1378 may receive, over the network(s) 1390 and from thevehicles, image data representative of images showing unexpected orchanged road conditions, such as recently commenced road-work. Theserver(s) 1378 may transmit, over the network(s) 1390 and to thevehicles, neural networks 1392, updated neural networks 1392, and/or mapinformation 1394, including information regarding traffic and roadconditions. The updates to the map information 1394 may include updatesfor the HD map 1322, such as information regarding construction sites,potholes, detours, flooding, and/or other obstructions. In someexamples, the neural networks 1392, the updated neural networks 1392,and/or the map information 1394 may have resulted from new trainingand/or experiences represented in data received from any number ofvehicles in the environment, and/or based on training performed at adatacenter (e.g., using the server(s) 1378 and/or other servers).

The server(s) 1378 may be used to train machine learning models (e.g.,neural networks) based on training data. The training data may begenerated by the vehicles, and/or may be generated in a simulation(e.g., using a game engine). In some examples, the training data istagged (e.g., where the neural network benefits from supervisedlearning) and/or undergoes other pre-processing, while in other examplesthe training data is not tagged and/or pre-processed (e.g., where theneural network does not require supervised learning). Once the machinelearning models are trained, the machine learning models may be used bythe vehicles (e.g., transmitted to the vehicles over the network(s)1390, and/or the machine learning models may be used by the server(s)1378 to remotely monitor the vehicles.

In some examples, the server(s) 1378 may receive data from the vehiclesand apply the data to up-to-date real-time neural networks for real-timeintelligent inferencing. The server(s) 1378 may include deep-learningsupercomputers and/or dedicated AI computers powered by GPU(s) 1384,such as a DGX and DGX Station machines developed by NVIDIA. However, insome examples, the server(s) 1378 may include deep learninginfrastructure that use only CPU-powered datacenters.

The deep-learning infrastructure of the server(s) 1378 may be capable offast, real-time inferencing, and may use that capability to evaluate andverify the health of the processors, software, and/or associatedhardware in the vehicle 1300. For example, the deep-learninginfrastructure may receive periodic updates from the vehicle 1300, suchas a sequence of images and/or objects that the vehicle 1300 has locatedin that sequence of images (e.g., via computer vision and/or othermachine learning object classification techniques). The deep-learninginfrastructure may run its own neural network to identify the objectsand compare them with the objects identified by the vehicle 1300 and, ifthe results do not match and the infrastructure concludes that the AI inthe vehicle 1300 is malfunctioning, the server(s) 1378 may transmit asignal to the vehicle 1300 instructing a fail-safe computer of thevehicle 1300 to assume control, notify the passengers, and complete asafe parking maneuver.

For inferencing, the server(s) 1378 may include the GPU(s) 1384 and oneor more programmable inference accelerators (e.g., NVIDIA's TensorRT).The combination of GPU-powered servers and inference acceleration maymake real-time responsiveness possible. In other examples, such as whereperformance is less critical, servers powered by CPUs, FPGAs, and otherprocessors may be used for inferencing.

Example Computing Device

FIG. 14 is a block diagram of an example computing device 1400 suitablefor use in implementing some embodiments of the present disclosure.Computing device 1400 may include a bus 1402 that directly or indirectlycouples the following devices: memory 1404, one or more centralprocessing units (CPUs) 1406, one or more graphics processing units(GPUs) 1408, a communication interface 1410, input/output (I/O) ports1412, input/output components 1414, a power supply 1416, and one or morepresentation components 1418 (e.g., display(s)).

Although the various blocks of FIG. 14 are shown as connected via thebus 1402 with lines, this is not intended to be limiting and is forclarity only. For example, in some embodiments, a presentation component1418, such as a display device, may be considered an I/O component 1414(e.g., if the display is a touch screen). As another example, the CPUs1406 and/or GPUs 1408 may include memory (e.g., the memory 1404 may berepresentative of a storage device in addition to the memory of the GPUs1408, the CPUs 1406, and/or other components). In other words, thecomputing device of FIG. 14 is merely illustrative. Distinction is notmade between such categories as “workstation,” “server,” “laptop,”“desktop,” “tablet,” “client device,” “mobile device,” “hand-helddevice,” “game console,” “electronic control unit (ECU),” “virtualreality system,” and/or other device or system types, as all arecontemplated within the scope of the computing device of FIG. 14.

The bus 1402 may represent one or more busses, such as an address bus, adata bus, a control bus, or a combination thereof. The bus 1402 mayinclude one or more bus types, such as an industry standard architecture(ISA) bus, an extended industry standard architecture (ESA) bus, a videoelectronics standards association (VESA) bus, a peripheral componentinterconnect (PCI) bus, a peripheral component interconnect express(PCIe) bus, and/or another type of bus.

The memory 1404 may include any of a variety of computer-readable media.The computer-readable media may be any available media that may beaccessed by the computing device 1400. The computer-readable media mayinclude both volatile and nonvolatile media, and removable andnon-removable media. By way of example, and not limitation, thecomputer-readable media may comprise computer-storage media andcommunication media.

The computer-storage media may include both volatile and nonvolatilemedia and/or removable and non-removable media implemented in any methodor technology for storage of information such as computer-readableinstructions, data structures, program modules, and/or other data types.For example, the memory 1404 may store computer-readable instructions(e.g., that represent a program(s) and/or a program element(s), such asan operating system. Computer-storage media may include, but is notlimited to, RAM, ROM, EEPROM, flash memory or other memory technology,CD-ROM, digital versatile disks (DVD) or other optical disk storage,magnetic cassettes, magnetic tape, magnetic disk storage or othermagnetic storage devices, or any other medium which may be used to storethe desired information and which may be accessed by computing device1400. As used herein, computer storage media does not comprise signalsper se.

The communication media may embody computer-readable instructions, datastructures, program modules, and/or other data types in a modulated datasignal such as a carrier wave or other transport mechanism and includesany information delivery media. The term “modulated data signal” mayrefer to a signal that has one or more of its characteristics set orchanged in such a manner as to encode information in the signal. By wayof example, and not limitation, the communication media may includewired media such as a wired network or direct-wired connection, andwireless media such as acoustic, RF, infrared and other wireless media.Combinations of any of the above should also be included within thescope of computer-readable media.

The CPU(s) 1406 may be configured to execute the computer-readableinstructions to control one or more components of the computing device1400 to perform one or more of the methods and/or processes describedherein. The CPU(s) 1406 may each include one or more cores (e.g., one,two, four, eight, twenty-eight, seventy-two, etc.) that are capable ofhandling a multitude of software threads simultaneously. The CPU(s) 1406may include any type of processor, and may include different types ofprocessors depending on the type of computing device 1400 implemented(e.g., processors with fewer cores for mobile devices and processorswith more cores for servers). For example, depending on the type ofcomputing device 1400, the processor may be an ARM processor implementedusing Reduced Instruction Set Computing (RISC) or an x86 processorimplemented using Complex Instruction Set Computing (CISC). Thecomputing device 1400 may include one or more CPUs 1406 in addition toone or more microprocessors or supplementary co-processors, such as mathco-processors.

The GPU(s) 1408 may be used by the computing device 1400 to rendergraphics (e.g., 3D graphics). The GPU(s) 1408 may include hundreds orthousands of cores that are capable of handling hundreds or thousands ofsoftware threads simultaneously. The GPU(s) 1408 may generate pixel datafor output images in response to rendering commands (e.g., renderingcommands from the CPU(s) 1406 received via a host interface). The GPU(s)1408 may include graphics memory, such as display memory, for storingpixel data. The display memory may be included as part of the memory1404. The GPU(s) 708 may include two or more GPUs operating in parallel(e.g., via a link). When combined together, each GPU 1408 may generatepixel data for different portions of an output image or for differentoutput images (e.g., a first GPU for a first image and a second GPU fora second image). Each GPU may include its own memory, or may sharememory with other GPUs.

In examples where the computing device 1400 does not include the GPU(s)1408, the CPU(s) 1406 may be used to render graphics.

The communication interface 1410 may include one or more receivers,transmitters, and/or transceivers that enable the computing device 700to communicate with other computing devices via an electroniccommunication network, included wired and/or wireless communications.The communication interface 1410 may include components andfunctionality to enable communication over any of a number of differentnetworks, such as wireless networks (e.g., Wi-Fi, Z-Wave, Bluetooth,Bluetooth LE, ZigBee, etc.), wired networks (e.g., communicating overEthernet), low-power wide-area networks (e.g., LoRaWAN, SigFox, etc.),and/or the Internet.

The I/O ports 1412 may enable the computing device 1400 to be logicallycoupled to other devices including the I/O components 1414, thepresentation component(s) 1418, and/or other components, some of whichmay be built in to (e.g., integrated in) the computing device 1400.Illustrative I/O components 1414 include a microphone, mouse, keyboard,joystick, game pad, game controller, satellite dish, scanner, printer,wireless device, etc. The I/O components 1414 may provide a natural userinterface (NUI) that processes air gestures, voice, or otherphysiological inputs generated by a user. In some instances, inputs maybe transmitted to an appropriate network element for further processing.An NUI may implement any combination of speech recognition, stylusrecognition, facial recognition, biometric recognition, gesturerecognition both on screen and adjacent to the screen, air gestures,head and eye tracking, and touch recognition (as described in moredetail below) associated with a display of the computing device 1400.The computing device 1400 may be include depth cameras, such asstereoscopic camera systems, infrared camera systems, RGB camerasystems, touchscreen technology, and combinations of these, for gesturedetection and recognition. Additionally, the computing device 1400 mayinclude accelerometers or gyroscopes (e.g., as part of an inertiameasurement unit (IMU)) that enable detection of motion. In someexamples, the output of the accelerometers or gyroscopes may be used bythe computing device 1400 to render immersive augmented reality orvirtual reality.

The power supply 1416 may include a hard-wired power supply, a batterypower supply, or a combination thereof. The power supply 1416 mayprovide power to the computing device 1400 to enable the components ofthe computing device 1400 to operate.

The presentation component(s) 1418 may include a display (e.g., amonitor, a touch screen, a television screen, a heads-up-display (HUD),other display types, or a combination thereof), speakers, and/or otherpresentation components. The presentation component(s) 1418 may receivedata from other components (e.g., the GPU(s) 1408, the CPU(s) 1406,etc.), and output the data (e.g., as an image, video, sound, etc.).

The disclosure may be described in the general context of computer codeor machine-useable instructions, including computer-executableinstructions such as program modules, being executed by a computer orother machine, such as a personal data assistant or other handhelddevice. Generally, program modules including routines, programs,objects, components, data structures, etc., refer to code that performparticular tasks or implement particular abstract data types. Thedisclosure may be practiced in a variety of system configurations,including hand-held devices, consumer electronics, general-purposecomputers, more specialty computing devices, etc. The disclosure mayalso be practiced in distributed computing environments where tasks areperformed by remote-processing devices that are linked through acommunications network.

As used herein, a recitation of “and/or” with respect to two or moreelements should be interpreted to mean only one element, or acombination of elements. For example, “element A, element B, and/orelement C” may include only element A, only element B, only element C,element A and element B, element A and element C, element B and elementC, or elements A, B, and C. In addition, “at least one of element A orelement B” may include at least one of element A, at least one ofelement B, or at least one of element A and at least one of element B.Further, “at least one of element A and element B” may include at leastone of element A, at least one of element B, or at least one of elementA and at least one of element B.

The subject matter of the present disclosure is described withspecificity herein to meet statutory requirements. However, thedescription itself is not intended to limit the scope of thisdisclosure. Rather, the inventors have contemplated that the claimedsubject matter might also be embodied in other ways, to includedifferent steps or combinations of steps similar to the ones describedin this document, in conjunction with other present or futuretechnologies. Moreover, although the terms “step” and/or “block” may beused herein to connote different elements of methods employed, the termsshould not be interpreted as implying any particular order among orbetween various steps herein disclosed unless and except when the orderof individual steps is explicitly described.

What is claimed is:
 1. A method comprising: receiving RADAR datarepresentative of sensor detections accumulated over a period of timeusing one or more RADAR sensors of an ego-actor; converting theaccumulated sensor detections to correspond to a position of theego-actor at a particular time within the period of time to generatemotion-compensated sensor detections; projecting the motion-compensatedsensor detections into two-dimensional (2D) image-space to generate aprojection image; applying, to a neural network, data representative ofthe projection image; computing, using the neural network and based atleast in part on the data, an output representative of one or moredetected objects; and generating, based at least in part on the outputof the neural network, at least one bounding shape corresponding to eachobject of the one or more detected objects.
 2. The method of claim 1,wherein the sensor detections are accumulated using two or more RADARsensors, and further wherein the RADAR data includes accumulated sensordetections from the two or more RADAR sensors, wherein the accumulatedsensor detections are transformed to a single coordinate system.
 3. Themethod of claim 1, wherein the particular time within the period of timeincludes a most current time within the period of time.
 4. The method ofclaim 1, wherein the converting the accumulated sensor detectionsincludes: mapping a past sensor detection of the sensor detections to apast motion of the ego-actor; and estimating a current position of anobject associated with the past sensor detection based at least in parton the past motion of the ego-actor.
 5. The method of claim 1, whereinthe projection image includes an overhead image of an environment aroundthe ego-actor, and further wherein the projecting the motion-compensatedsensor detections includes orthographically projecting themotion-compensated sensor detections into the overhead image of theenvironment.
 6. The method of claim 1, wherein the projection imageincludes an overhead image having a specified spatial dimension, andfurther wherein the data has the spatial dimension.
 7. The method ofclaim 1, wherein, for each pixel of the projection image, the datarepresentative of the projection image accumulates reflectioncharacteristics of a subset of the motion-compensated sensor detectionsthat intersect the pixel.
 8. The method of claim 1, wherein the neuralnetwork comprises a common trunk connected to a class confidence headand an instance regression head, wherein the class confidence headincludes a channel for each class of object to be detected, wherein theinstance regression head includes N channels, each of the N channelsregressing a particular type of location, size, or orientationinformation for each detected object.
 9. The method of claim 1, whereinthe output of the neural network comprises a first tensor storingregressed location, size, and orientation data for each detected objectand a second tensor storing classification data for each detectedobject, wherein the generating the at least one bounding shape is basedon the first tensor and the second tensor.
 10. The method of claim 1,wherein the output of the neural network comprises a first tensorstoring regressed location, size, and orientation data for each detectedobject and a second tensor storing classification data for each detectedobject, wherein the generating the at least one bounding shapecomprises: generating candidate bounding shapes based on the firsttensor and the second tensor; and removing duplicate candidates from thecandidate bounding shapes by performing at least one of filtering orclustering of the candidate bounding shapes.
 11. The method of claim 1,wherein the data representative of the projection image comprises amulti-channel RADAR data tensor encoding the projection image and a setof features representative of reflection characteristics of the sensordetections.
 12. A method comprising: accessing a multi-channel RADARdata tensor representative of ego-motion-compensated sensor detectionsaccumulated over a period of time and reflection characteristicscorresponding to an environment of an ego-actor; applying datarepresentative of the multi-channel RADAR data tensor to a neuralnetwork to cause the neural network to compute an output indicative ofone or more detected objects in the environment; and generating, fromthe output of the neural network, one or more bounding shapescorresponding to the one or more detected objects in the environment.13. The method of claim 12, further comprising generating theego-motion-compensated sensor detections by: accumulating RADAR datafrom two or more RADAR sensors over a period of time; transforming theRADAR data to a single coordinate system; and converting the RADAR datato a position of the ego-actor at a time within the period of time. 14.The method of claim 12, further comprising generating theego-motion-compensated sensor detections by: mapping a past sensordetection to a past motion of the ego-actor; and estimating a currentposition of an object associated with the past sensor detection based atleast in part on the past motion of the ego-actor.
 15. The method ofclaim 12, wherein the multi-channel RADAR data tensor includes aprojection image generated by orthographically projectingego-motion-compensated sensor detections into an overhead image of theenvironment.
 16. The method of claim 12, wherein the neural networkcomprises a common trunk connected to a class confidence head and aninstance regression head, wherein the class confidence head includes achannel for each class of object to be detected, wherein the instanceregression head includes N channels, each of the N channels regressing aparticular type of location, size, or orientation information for eachdetected object.
 17. A method comprising: accumulating, over a period oftime, sensor data representative of sensor detections and correspondingreflection characteristics corresponding to an environment of anego-actor; converting the sensor detections to a latest known positionof the ego-actor to generate motion-compensated sensor detections;projecting the motion-compensated sensor detections into a projectionimage; for each pixel of the projection image, computing a set offeatures based at least in part on the reflection characteristicscorresponding to a subset of the motion-compensated sensor detectionsassociated with the pixel; and generating an output that encodes theprojection image and the set of features for a neural network configuredto detect objects in the environment.
 18. The method of claim 17,wherein the output comprises a multi-channel RADAR data tensor withmultiple layers storing the projection image and the set of features.19. The method of claim 17, wherein converting the sensor detections toa latest known position of the ego-actor comprises: mapping a pastsensor detection of the sensor detections to a past motion of theego-actor; and estimating a current position of an object associatedwith the past sensor detection based at least in part on the past motionof the ego-actor.
 20. The method of claim 17, wherein projecting themotion-compensated sensor detections into a projection image comprisesorthographically projecting the motion-compensated sensor detectionsinto an overhead image of the environment.